Orchestrating Sensemaking: Investigating the Sensemaking Processes and Its Enablers at the Dutch National Police
Summary
Introduction. Intelligence analysis is the process of creating an understanding of information. Here the information can be of many types and can contain gaps and inconsistencies. Intelligence analysis is essentially a sensemaking task, of which the process has been described in earlier studies. We reason that with the emergence of Big Data and AI, this process might have changed. Additionally, there is limited work available on the factors that enable sensemaking in organisations.
Method. In this study, we have conducted a case study at the Dutch Police to investigate its intelligence analysis operations. The case study consists of three embedded cases: investigation analysis, security analysis, and strategic analysis. A total of 17 interviews have been conducted for this research.
Findings. In the within-case analysis, we present the intelligence analysis processes found inside each case. In investigation analysis, the analyst works to schematise information that is collected by detectives and to derive insights from it. In security analysis, information on a specific criminal phenomenon within a unit is monitored and analysed. For strategic analysis, goal-driven analysis projects take place to provide leadership with information about a criminal phenomenon. The cross-case analysis resulted in a generalised description of the sensemaking process in the police organisation. Inside the Dutch Police, sensemaking is a combination of six activities: filtering, searching, reading, converting/importing, schematising and analysis. Products of sensemaking are information needs, schemas, and insights. We have furthermore looked at how the sensemaking processes interact to form a sensemaking ecosystem. Additionally, a set of 24 enablers are listed in the categories of data, software, organisation and process for sensemaking in the organisation.
Discussion. We have found schematisation to be a crucial part of sensemaking. Contrary to earlier literature, we found that sensemaking in our case study takes place through predefined structures, causing the search for good representations to be missing in our found sensemaking process. Additionally, the new concept of an information flow inside the sensemaking process is introduced. Also new to the process is a description of how analysis of structured non-textual data can be part of the sensemaking process. Lastly, based on the enablers a set of recommendations are presented for the Dutch Police organisation to improve its sensemaking operations.