5 Intelligence Gathering Tools To Improve Your Security Risk Assessments

Trackforce

May 24, 2024 · 9 min read

TrackTik 5 Intelligence Gathering Tools To Improve Your Security Risk Assessments

Intelligence gathering sounds like work for a secret government agency. Agencies like the CIA do rely on it heavily, but it matters just as much to private security companies.

Your team probably gathers intelligence already, whether you call it that or not. Every site walk, conversation with a property manager and look at local crime data feeds the same goal: a security risk assessment you can defend to your client. Doing it deliberately, with the right tools, is what turns that assessment into a plan your officers can run on shift in TrackTik security operations software.

Want to go further? Our guide, A Data-Driven Defense: Transforming Security with Reporting Intelligence, shows how to turn the data your officers already collect into proactive insight about emerging risks.

Key takeaways

Most security firms already gather intelligence without calling it that.
Doing it deliberately is what separates a defensible risk assessment from an educated guess.
Three intelligence types cover almost all of the work.
Open-source, human and imagery intelligence answer nearly every question a property-level assessment raises.
The best starting tools cost nothing.
Map comparison, satellite imagery, crime mapping and geo-tagged social search sharpen an assessment immediately, at any company size.
A risk assessment is a sales asset, not just an operations document.
Crime data and imagery make the risk visible to the client, which is what justifies your security plan and your bill rates.
Ongoing beats one-time.
Risk shifts with seasons, demographics and current events. With TrackTik, the tours, incidents and site tasks that follow an assessment are logged as evidence, so the next review starts from your own operational record rather than memory.

What Is Intelligence Gathering?

Intelligence gathering (or intelligence collection) is the process of collecting information on threats to people, buildings, or even organizations and using that information to protect them. In the context of private security, intelligence gathering drives risk assessment and security strategies.

There are 6 types of intelligence according to the US government, but Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), Human Intelligence (HUMINT), and Imagery Intelligence (IMINT) are the most important for security risk assessments.

Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) – This is intelligence you can easily get from publicly available sources like websites, databases, news and social media. OSINT can be very helpful because it will show you the information on an area that potential threats have access to.

Human Intelligence (HUMINT) – Gathering human intelligence is one of the easiest ways to find out more about the security environment of a property you are covering. On security contracts you are bidding on, conducting a property walk and talking to the existing officers are great ways to collect human intelligence on the property.

Imagery Intelligence (IMINT) – Imagery intelligence includes things like maps and GPS images. It is extremely useful for helping to understand the surrounding environment of the property you provide security for like major roads, public transit routes, parking lots, and public spaces.

5 Intelligence Gathering Tools to Improve Security Risk Assessments

These 5 tools fall into 1 or more of the intelligence categories from above. They are all free to use and can greatly improve intelligence gathering in any size private security company. For more in-depth information on these tools and other intelligence gathering tips, make sure to sign up for this free security risk assessment training.

1. Map Compare

Map Compare tool showing side-by-side satellite views of a property

Map Compare is an IMINT tool that gives you access to dozens of different map types and allows you to compare them side-by-side. For example, the picture above shows New York City from 3 perspectives: bike paths/lanes, public transit routes, and a satellite image.
Before you do a risk assessment, you can use this tool to look at different map types and better understand the environment the property is in. This can give you and your security guards a better idea of what types of potential risks and threats to look for during the risk assessment process.

2. Google Earth

Google Earth satellite view used to assess a property and its surroundings

Google Earth is a simple IMINT tool that is very useful for planning risk assessments. You can draw on the map, start mapping potential guard tour routes, and even take measurements like in the picture above.

Because of the enhanced imagery that Google Earth offers, it can look very good on customer-facing risk assessment reports and communicate a high level of professionalism.

3. Crimemapping.com

Crimemapping.com map showing reported crime incidents near a property

This website combines Open-Source and Imagery Intelligence in a clear and useful way. Set the “what, where, and when” to see the crime trends that are happening near a property you cover.

This map gives you as a security professional an understanding of what kind of crime is happening in an area. By including it in client reports, you can help them see the issues going on around their property. This can be especially useful when you need to update your security plan, service offerings, or even bill rates because the client will clearly see where the problems are.

4. Citizen

Citizen app showing real-time incident alerts in a local area

(NOTE: Citizen is currently only available in major cities. Skip down to the next section for a similar tool.)

Citizen combines all 3 types of intelligence gathering. Regular people use Citizen to report incidents happening near them like a structure fire or police activity.

The likelihood of any of the incidents happening on the property you are hired to protect is unlikely. But it’s helpful to know what’s going on in the area around it if those incidents end up affecting the property or people on it.

5. OSINT Combine

OSINT Combine open-source intelligence toolset interface

OSINT Combine is an Open-Source Intelligence website that offers a wide range of intelligence gathering tools. This tool, called the Social Geo Lens, allows you to search through geo-tagged social media posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat.
You can see what people are saying about the area generally or if any specific incidents have occurred. This can be useful after an incident has occurred near a property you service to see what potential threats still exist.

Why Ongoing Intelligence Gathering and Risk Assessments Matter

When bidding a new security contract, intelligence gathering and risk assessments are very important. During the bidding stage, odds are you won’t know much about the new property, and it’s even more likely that you’ll still be trying to understand the client’s wants, needs, and concerns.

Gathering information about a new property will set you up to perform your security services better from day one. But many physical security companies don’t think about intelligence gathering and risk assessments after they’ve won a new contract.

In fact, ongoing intelligence gathering is just as important as the initial risk assessment. As you implement your security solutions, the security risks will shift and change. Current events, changes in the demographics of the neighborhood, and seasonal events can all influence what specific risks a property might face.

By doing regular security risk assessments and gathering intelligence consistently, you will set your security services up to be more adaptable and show your clients that you are evolving with them and their needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Intelligence gathering is the practice of collecting information about threats to a property, the people on it and the surrounding area, then using that information to shape the security plan. In private security it is the input that makes a risk assessment defensible rather than instinctive. Open-source, human and imagery intelligence cover most of what a site-level assessment needs.

All five tools covered in this article are free. Map Compare gives you layered map views, Google Earth handles measurement and route planning, Crimemapping.com shows local crime trends, Citizen surfaces real-time incident reports in major cities, and the Social Geo Lens from OSINT Combine searches geo-tagged social posts. They cost nothing, which makes them a sensible starting point for a security firm of any size.

Treat the assessment as a standing cycle rather than a one-time deliverable. Reassess at contract renewal, after any significant incident, and whenever the surrounding area changes through construction, seasonal traffic or a shift in local crime patterns. Quarterly is a reasonable default for most commercial sites. TrackTik gives each review a factual starting point, because the tours, incidents and site tasks recorded since the last assessment are already in the system.

Show the evidence rather than the conclusion. Crime maps and satellite imagery make the risk visible, and the operational record shows what your officers actually did about it. TrackTik reporting turns completed tours, checkpoint scans and incident reports into client-ready output, so the assessment and the follow-through become part of the same story when you justify a security plan or a rate increase.

Yes. Intelligence gathering does not stop once the contract is won, and TrackTik is where the ongoing picture is captured. Incident reports, guard tour data, site tasks and dispatch records build a continuous operational history for each property, and TrackTik business intelligence surfaces patterns across sites, so a rise in after-hours activity becomes visible before it turns into a client complaint.

Convert every identified risk into something an officer does on shift. A vulnerable loading dock becomes a checkpoint on a tour, a recurring trespass pattern becomes a post order with a named escalation path, and a high-consequence area becomes a site task that requires a photo. TrackTik holds all of it in one place, so the assessment stops being a document in a folder and becomes the configuration your operation runs on. You can book a TrackTik demo to walk through that mapping against your own site list.