Criminal intelligence is information compiled, analyzed, and/or disseminated in an effort to anticipate, prevent, or monitor criminal activity.[1][2][3][4]
The United States Army Military Police Corps defines criminal intelligence as information gathered or collated, analyzed, recorded/reported and disseminated by law enforcement agencies concerning types of crime, identified criminals and known or suspected criminal groups.[5]
It is particularly useful to deal with organized crime. Criminal intelligence is developed by using surveillance, informants, interrogation, and research, or it may be just picked up on the "street" by individual police officers.
Some larger law enforcement agencies have a department, division or section specifically designed to gather disparate pieces of information and develop criminal intelligence. One of the most effective ways of applying criminal intelligence is first to record it (store in a computer system), which can be "mined" (searched) for specific information.