Analyst Retention Issues in LE Agencies, Let’s Look in the Mirror

Perhaps it’s time we look in the mirror, acknowledge reality and either accept it or try to fix it…

Turnover. analysts know it’s an issue. It’s discussed on regional phone calls and at conferences. However, productive, strategic discussions on the issue rarely progress. Furthermore, there is even less progress with trying to reduce and mitigate the impact on the law enforcement agencies and ultimately down field impact on public safety at the national level.

State and local (S/L) criminal intelligence leadership who have taken time to talk (converse + LISTEN) with local and state analysts in the past decade understand how much of an issue retention (aka turnover) is in the S/L analyst community. We’ll come back to “converse + LISTEN” in a moment. This post is not intended to breakdown all of the myriad of ways this issue is a significant problem that deserves far more attention. Rather, almost like approaching “What If?” analysis, we at ECHO are taking a stand. S/L analyst turnover (or retention) IS a problem. There ARE day-to-day tactical and strategic impacts to public safety because of it. So? Now what? The blunt explanation may surprise you…or will it?

The explanation: Para-military S/L structures and widely embraced behavior and attitude that sworn personnel are more important in all ways than civilian staff. If this simple fact does not change, neither will the issue of retention.

Phew. We said it (rather wrote it; “out loud”) Was that so hard? It was very difficult doing the non-analytic thing and burying the bottom-line a bit, but I felt this one needed a bit more build up to properly frame the situation. For every “analysts are the backbone” speech at regional or national intelligence or fusion-related conferences, there are twenty civilian analysts who go home after a shift and take the absolute worst thoughts home with them.

How can I solve this one?

I can’t let the team down.

My professional worth lies in my case closure, intelligence product value rate, or volume of RFIs completed in the past 24 hours.

I don’t care what it takes (aside from breaking the law or violating rights); we’re gonna get this “guy.”

And those are just the thoughts about wanting to help, wanting to make it a difference. Now add the crime scene photos, horrific details involving child-sexual abuse material (CSAM), and radicalization and recruitment material by every ideologue under the sun.

As an aside, I want to pause for a second - a moment for empathy. I’ve been there, for many many years I placed tremendous pressure on myself try and be the best, be right, be perfect. For many, this may be tough to read or maybe it’s cathartic. I hope it is. However, catharsis comes next. On top of the issues note above, there is belittling, lack of respect, lack of awareness, lack of support, and a culture that does not understand WHY civilian criminal or intelligence analysts may need post-crisis and mental health support for their efforts.

In S/L para-military law enforcement structures, there is no room for weakness. There is not even room for talking outside the chain of command in many places. Stay in lines, or else. The intelligence function is a support function; however, some would argue criminal intelligence can or SHOULD guide or LEAD law enforcement agencies. In cases where this post falls on receptive but “thankfully we are not like that” ears, things are working well, for now.

I consider myself a “career analyst” - a person who devoted their professional career to the point it impacted their personal life. While my days in a law enforcement agency are sadly over, a story and lesson for a different day, I pause and note that I feel almost a duty to speak up.

An example comes to mind. About a decade ago, during the hiring process for at least two civilian analysts, a senior, sworn S/L law enforcement official asked a young, male candidate why he had not chosen a sworn career path and if he was still considering doing so. I’ll take a few things off the table. This question was NOT part of the standard questioning for the hiring process and was not asked of other applicants, particularly subsequent female applicants. Perhaps the question, as framed here, was not emasculating for the applicant or for any male analyst in the room. However, this supervisory official, who asked the question, would later rise to the highest uniformed rank of his agency. This is exactly the point and problem here. Second class jobs for individuals perceived as lesser by their sworn counterparts and broader law enforcement culture.

Going way back in time, to 1973, the S/L criminal intelligence community should have at least started off on the right foot. In 1973, national-level boards and commissions had called for an intelligence function to be created in every major city police department and in every state police-type agency. Some of the calls also a recommendation that the head of the intelligence function serve the agency’s lead directly.

As of 2025, I’d love to know where the United States stands on sound, logical advice that is over a half-century old. In an alternative timeline, where these recommendations and others of the same era that were meant to reform and guide law enforcement intelligence efforts, I wonder if there would have been an “Oklahoma City Bombing” or “9/11” - realizing that even with good intelligence efforts we will not “stop them all.”

Ok, if things are truly broken, what’s next? Move all analysts to non-sworn agencies of some kind? No, I doubt that would work. Should we move fusion centers out of LE-agencies? No, I’m not saying that either. There are tremendous downsides to that and S/L fusion centers that are not in LE agencies often struggle the most, due to lack of direct data access and criminal justice perspective.

Ok, then what am I saying? I’m saying it’s time to look in the mirror and realize that this is simply the reality for the S/L criminal intelligence analyst. If associations or guilds or collectives who promote the value of intelligence and criminal analysts do not step forward in a stronger way to serve as advocates for frontline analytic personnel, then, all will be lost. However, what if? Just, what if, these entities could come together with the Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council (CICC) and/or other national bodies and make focusing on this issue a national priority. Well, then, perhaps we’d go past mirror gazing to progress.

At the risk of “soap-boxing” too much, I’ll revisit my central conclusion. Intelligence and crime analysts are hired to be independent, critical and objective thinkers - to, “think outside the box” and “connect the dots.” However, these jobs sit in a culture and in many organizations where talents that make individuals good analysts, are simply not valued, understood, or even recognized. In fact, intelligence or crime analysts, are often viewed as “great to work with,” but their actual true “analytic skills or abilities” take the back seat to a subservient, customer-focused support role. That’s a matter for a different day…

Intelligence and crime analysts of the United States…keep fighting…work hard…challenge your cognitive biases…believe in yourself…and know that even if you feel like no one respects your work and values your efforts, some do…those at ECHO do…and we wont’ stop trying to make things better.

~Knight