Intelligence is provided to various levels within a law enforcement agency. The higher the agency level, the less detailed the intelligence provided. Intelligence levels are described as:

• Strategic Intelligence - Utilized at the executive level for departmental administrative planning, strategy development, and the planning and coordination of department-wide or multi-agency operations.
• Operational Intelligence - Utilized to plan and conduct large-scale law enforcement operations. These operations are executed to support agency-level goals and objectives. This publication is written for and directed mainly to the operational intelligence level units within an agency.
• Tactical Intelligence - Utilized to plan and conduct law enforcement street-level operations. These operations are executed to support various unit-level goals and objectives, which in turn support the agency's operational and strategic-level goals and objectives.

Operational-level operations rely on the success of the tactical units; strategic-level operations rely on the success of the operational units. There are no specific divisions as to what constitutes strategic, operational, or tactical levels of intelligence. In fact, in most cases, there is a considerable overlap.