The figure presents the three operational functions that support the Operations Concept Development Phase, which are to:

• Develop a law enforcement mission statement and mission objectives
• Identify courses of action in use and likely to be employed by the criminals
• Analyze and select the law enforcement course(s) of action

Prior to this phase, law enforcement or someone who oversees the law enforcement unit will have determined that there will be a response to the identified problem. As a result, in this phase, the first thing that must happen is the development of a "mission statement."

Develop a Law Enforcement Mission Statement and Mission Objectives

The mission statement is usually only one or two sentences. It should contain the who, what, when, where, and why of the mission and sometimes the "how." In the mission statement, the mission manager sets forth exactly the actions to be accomplished during the mission.

A well-developed and designed mission statement is critical to the success of the entire mission. When the mission manager cannot reduce the mission statement to one or two sentences, this may be an indication that the mission has not been fully thought-out or identified. After an appropriate mission statement is developed, the remainder of the planning will be based on that statement.

Once the mission statement is finalized, the mission objectives, which must support the mission statement, are developed. If the objectives do not support the mission statement, one of two things must happen:

1. The mission statement may need to be reworked.
2. One or more of the mission objectives may need to be more specifically defined.

Identify Courses of Action Available to Criminals

In the planning process, law enforcement planners need to identify all plausible courses of action available to the criminals. The criminal courses of action will dictate the courses of action available to the law enforcement community. If all possible realistic courses of action available to the criminals are not identified, law enforcement cannot proceed with an efficient selection process for their responding law enforcement courses of action.

Analyze and Select One or More Law Enforcement Course(s) of Action

Once the realistic course or courses of action available to the criminals have been identified, the law enforcement planners begin the review and evaluation process of those courses of action. In some instances, only one criminal course of action may be available, and it has been identified and confirmed. In other instances, multiple courses of action will be available to the criminals. In those instances, an analytical evaluation process must be implemented by law enforcement to narrow the criminal's number of realistically available courses of action.

There will be instances in this evaluation process where the only option for law enforcement planners is to stand back and monitor the criminal's activities until more intelligence can be developed on the subject.