Why is assessing a human sources motivation so important?

Accessing human resources motivation is very important to the investigator because it is by far the most valuable source of information available to the investigators. While human resources may provide valuable information regarding a suspects background
or operational information, the reliability of the source is very important, especially in court. This is because when the truthfulness of an informant is suspect in court, everything he or she says is questionable and may not amount to evidence in a court of law. To ensure that investigators build a strong case in court, they follow a policy of trust but verify. To verify the authenticity of an informants information, the investigator asks him or her questions that he or she has answers to (Vecchi, 2004). Identifying the motivation of a witness is important to the development of the case, because when an investigator identifies an assets motives he or she can meet the motives to ensure the asset provides truthful information and continues to cooperate with the investigator.
Central to determining the reliability of a source is the motive. Most of the witnesses are often motivated by money or making a deal with the prosecutor, however, they are a few who are motivated by altruism or political ideologies. Other motivations common in drug related investigations include informing on competition. The greatest challenge facing the prosecution in the development of witnesses is that most witnesses are not truthful about their true motivations. Because motivation is directly linked to the reliability of an informant, determining the motivation of an asset enables the investigator to prove the reliability of the asset to the court (Matsumoto et al, 2011). This enables the acceptance of the information provided by the informant in court as evidence. Although human sources do not hold enough value to prove serious cases, such as those involving murder in a court of law, they collaborate physical evidence enabling the investigator to build a stronger case. Information provided by the informants may also prove important in the identification and discovery of physical evidence.
How does criminal intelligence drive an investigation?
Criminal intelligence is information relevant to the development of a case that is collected by the investigator. Criminal intelligence is not conclusive, however, when weighed correctly it provides an indicator for the investigator to follow as he or she endeavors to discover the truth. Criminal intelligence is therefore the individual pieces of information no matter how irrelevant they may seem at the time of discovery that enable the investigator to progressively move closer towards identifying the perpetrator of a crime. Criminal intelligence is part of proactive investigations in which the investigator must identify the elements of the crime. The criminal intelligence so to speak draws out a map for the investigator for a point of origin to a destination, which the investigator has no idea of its whereabouts. Successful conclusion of a case depends on careful evaluation of the individual pieces of intelligence and the relative importance of individual intelligence against the whole (Matsumoto et al, 2011).
Criminal intelligence is the information collected by investigators either form documentaries or human resources. The information collected from the various sources is raw and must undergo evaluation if it is to prove its usefulness in the investigation. The evaluation process prove the relevance of the information to the case, thus it becomes intelligence. The intelligence supports the decision-making process as the investigator endeavors to discover the truth. The purpose of the investigator is to discover the truth. Criminal intelligence enables the investigator to discovery and position different parts of the jigsaw puzzle through evaluation of the information to determine its sources reliability. Criminal intelligence therefore drives investigators where there is no enough evidence to hold or clear a suspect, and in victimless cases, such as those involving drug trafficking and terrorism activities (Vecchi, 2004).
How can an investigator assess the reliability of criminal intelligence?
Accessing the reliability of criminal intelligence involves the interpretation of information to give meaning. This involves an inevitable degree of speculation and risk. However, all decisions involve the application of human natural ability to analyze information. It is possible to break down the process into a series of questions that each person asks him or herself when analyzing a decision for the purposes of making important decisions. First, the investigator must define the problem and its significance to development of a case or solving a particular crime. The investigator must then identify the information at his or her disposal and any other information that is accessible to him or her at the time. Here the investigator develops possible ways of acquiring new information. The investigators must identify possible meaning that the information available provides and the relevance of the meanings to the ongoing issue (UNODC, 2011).
Depending on the information, the investigator could identify several possibilities. The investigator must arrange the possibilities in order of likelihood and any further decision must depend on the likelihood of a particular scenario over the other. The investigator must then decide whether the information available is sufficient to choose one possibility and pursue it or continue to gather more information. This is the challenge that investigators face on a daily basis (Lyman, 2002). The reliability of criminal intelligence is also the most critical factor in the determination of resources allocation. Only cases with a likelihood of success receive the necessary resources to act on the intelligence collected by the investigator. To establish the reliability of criminal intelligence the investigator uses an event chart. An event chart is a simple diagram drawn in sequence so that the relationship between different events and their time of occurrence becomes clear (UNODC, 2011).
 References
Lyman, M. D. (2002). Criminal investigation: The art and science  (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Matsumoto, D., Hwang, H. S., Skinner, L., and Frank, M. (2011). Evaluating Truthfulness and Detecting Deception. Retrieved from: http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/june_2011/school_violence
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). (2011). Criminal Intelligence: Manual for analysts. Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Retrieved from: http://www.unodc.org/documents/organized-crime/Law-Enforcement/Criminal_Intelligence_for_Analysts.pdf
Vecchi, G. M. (2004). INVESTIGATIVE PROCESSES : CJI 550