Intelligence Sharing
North Yorkshire Police relies on intelligence from communities, partners and other law enforcement agencies. Intelligence can come from a range of sources such as a concerned member of the community worried about a neighbouring address, a local authority worker who has received a disclosure from a person, or from police in another area.
What is the difference between information and intelligence?
In simple terms, intelligence is where the information submitted has been through an evaluation process based on how the information has been given, who/what was the source of the information, how reliable is that information likely to be and who are they able to share that intelligence with. The process used to evaluate information in North Yorkshire Police is called 3x5x2.
So what is 3x5x2?
The 3x5x2 intelligence assessment is a process undertaken by the Police and is not something required of partners, however may be useful to understand the process. It critically assesses the information in three key areas:
Source: identifies who has supplied the information and how reliable they deemed to be. This may be someone deemed to be reliable with no reason to doubt they can’t be trusted, a new source who may be reliable, but has not yet been proven, or is possibly an untrustworthy source.
Provenance: grades how reliable the information is likely to be, given how it is known to the source, and can fall into different categories, for example:
- It may be first-hand information, or
- It may have been passed on through someone else, or
- It is not believed to be reliable.
This grade gives intelligence services an idea of how likely the intelligence is to be true.
Sharing: The final element requires an assessment of the information to ensure that if the information is shared, it wouldn’t put the source of the information at a risk of significant harm. For example, if the source is the only person who could have known something and this is acted upon, it will be obvious who provided this information to the authorities. This is assessed and split between lawful sharing permitted or lawful sharing permitted with conditions.
All intelligence is submitted to police and goes through the assessment processes. It is given a grade that informs the police how much value they can attribute to the information and how they can use it.
What if the source wants to remain anonymous?
On occasions people may provide information but ask to remain anonymous for a number of reasons. In these instances, their details should still be recorded on the form. This is sanitised and viewing is limited to a very small number of highly vetted officers and staff within North Yorkshire Police.
Please reassure your colleagues, people and the communities you work with that their name and personal information will be kept confidential, but it is crucial that this information is made part of the original submission.
Click here to access the Partnership Information Sharing Form
What if I want to pass information on about a safeguarding concern?
You should not use the partnership information sharing form for making a referral to raise a safeguarding concern. If you have a concern about a child or young person and wish to raise a concern, please visit:
If need to raise a concern about an adult, please visit:
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