• Prize for each winner
• Free one year membership to ACIA
• Place on the judging panel for future awards
• Nomination to the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence   analysts(IALEIA) International Awards
• ACIA Trophy
• Award winners will be invited to present their winning analysis at the ACIA Conference.

ACIA AWARD WINNERS GO ON TO WIN PRESTIGIOUS INTERNATIONAL AWARD!

Having won prizes in the 2009 ACIA Award, Joy Caws and Aimee Reed were both automatically entered into the International Association of Crime and Intelligence Analysts (IALEIA) annual awards. Due to the very high standard of their nominations both were announced winners of the 2011 IALEIA Professional Service Award, given to individuals for "outstanding contributions as intelligence analysts to the achievement of law enforcement objectives". In addition to winning the award, Joy and Aimee were invited to the IALEIA Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, in May this year to receive their prize at the Awards Banquet. Joy Caws from Warwickshire Constabulary tells us more about the experience:

"It was a real highlight to my career, and I am so glad and thankful that I was given both the award and the opportunity to attend. The conference was excellent- more pomp (National Anthems, flags! etc) than our conferences, but of the highest standard, and I would rank it up there and totally comparable with the best conferences I have attended over here. There were talks on everything from Microsoft Excel specialist techniques, to Smuggling, to covert cell site work. One thing that was also apparent was the professionalism that Analysis is regarded over in the states. It is a well regarded, professional career choice, with people serving their whole careers in different ranks of analysis, and much less of a staff vs officer divide, which really struck me,"

Aimee Reed from the Metropolitan Police Service also spoke very highly of the conference, the awards and their value to analysts: "Traveling to the USA to pick up the award was fantastic. The Conference was extremely well organised and offered a wide range of high calibre speakers on all areas of serious and organised crime. It was very practitioner-focused and this was largely because the content of the courses and seminars aimed to use analysis to direct law enforcement activity - not just a high-brow overview of academic theory. It was obvious that intelligence professionals are held in much higher regard in other jurisdictions than the reported perception of intelligence staff within UK law enforcement. The long-establishment of IALEIA appears to have been influential in this and I hope that ACIA can achieve the same. I was really interested in the link between training of analysts and the conference. Basically, all new analysts are expected to attend the Conference to become accredited and trained in specific techniques. On a personal note, winning was a real surprise, as you are judged all over again by international peers but it was great to meet analysts from all over the World - especially Joy and her family! A great experience"

This is the third year running that winners of ACIA awards have gone on to win awards from IALEIA. ACIA has a long standing relationship with IALEIA due to its common goals, and it is great that we are able to get analysts from the UK recognised both nationally and internationally.

Aimee raises an interesting point about the perception of analysts in the UK, do your experiences differ to that of Aimee or do you have views on analysis that you would like to share? Why not start a discussion in the online forum….