Criminal capabilities assessments provide intelligence assessments to the law enforcement mission manager. The evaluation examines how the following could affect the law enforcement mission:

• Area of Operations
• Current criminal situation
• Available criminal courses of action
• Assessments of available law enforcement courses of action

The assessment requires intelligence regarding the criminal group in a number of areas. In addition, it requires intelligence personnel who truly understand the criminal group being assessed and their criminal Modus Operandi. The combination of the available intelligence regarding the criminal group and the ability of trained intelligence agents and analysts to “think like the criminals” produces the most effective assessment.

The result is an assessment that will identify and prioritize the criminal's “most likely” courses of action. In addition, the assessment will identify the factors that will influence the criminals' thought process in the selection of one course of action over another, providing law enforcement planners with insight should the criminal situation change unexpectedly. The assessment also develops and provides “indicators” that can assist law enforcement in determining which course of action the criminals have selected.

The criminal capabilities assessment process starts once the initial Current Criminal Activity Intelligence Report has been completed. As the Current Criminal Activity Intelligence Report is updated, the Criminal Capabilities Assessment Intelligence Report should be updated as time and staff allow. The following figure illustrates that the Criminal Capabilities Assessment Intelligence Report is produced in the third mission phase.