TRAINING

The IIS-MU, through its Center for Information Research, Analysis, and Training (CIRAT), has a number of training options for potential clients to consider.  For more information contact:

Brad Gleason
Operations Director (CIRAT)
bgleason@mercyhurst.edu
Phone: 814-824-2423

Course Development

IIS-MU has developed courses of varying lengths and to varying degrees of intensity for the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the FBI, and other government agencies, including some foreign governments.  We are prepared to use our highly skilled subject matter experts and instructional designers to develop effective training courses to meet client needs.  Potential areas include, but are not limited to:

Contact us for all of your training needs.

Course Catalog

Courses have covered topics such as counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and intelligence analysis methodologies. The IIS-MU faculty has crafted unique, application-oriented programs that give intelligence analysts more tools to add to their toolbox. IIS-MU offers course packages with the option of taking train-the-trainer courses at Mercyhurst or the client’s chosen site, or IIS-MU faculty and staff can train the personnel at the client’s choice of locations.

Advanced Analytic Techniques (5 day course)

This course is designed to provide an opportunity for students to explore techniques emerging from the physical and social sciences and apply those techniques to intelligence problems. Focusing on a variety of techniques from a variety of disciplines, this course will expose an advanced student to new and potentially useful methods for conducting intelligence analysis.

Analytic Methodologies for Law Enforcement and Homeland Security (5 day course)

The course reviews the key requirements for intelligence in law enforcement and homeland security. The course focuses the use of advanced analytic methodologies to analyze structured and unstructured law enforcement data produced by all source collection. Students will apply these concepts, using a variety of tools, to develop descriptive, explanatory, and estimative products and briefings for decision-makers in the field.

Intelligence Communications (5 day course)

The skill most valued by the intelligence consumer is the ability to communicate, briefly and effectively, the results of detailed analytic work. This course, through repetitive application of a focused set of skills to a body of information of constantly increasing complexity, is designed to prepare intelligence analysts to deliver a variety of intelligence products in both written and oral formats.

Intelligence Support for Law Enforcement Investigations (10 day course)

This course is designed to enhance the ability of law enforcement to combat terrorism and serious crime through the effective use of investigative analysis techniques and dissemination of law enforcement intelligence. The theme of this course is “to think like an analyst,” to expand the participants’ view of the value of information developed during a criminal investigation to both their own investigation and to the national and international law enforcement community.  Participants will be introduced to a number of intelligence analysis topics and offered some of the latest thinking on case support. Through discussion groups, problem solving exercises, case studies and a complex course scenario, participants will learn innovative methods for using law enforcement intelligence to combat terrorism and serious crime and grasp the importance of sharing information with a variety of law enforcement entities.

Combating Domestic and Transnational Terrorism (10 day course)

This course will enable first-line law enforcement supervisors, law enforcement officers with supervisory responsibilities, criminal investigators, and law enforcement information analysts to conduct their criminal investigations and gather law enforcement intelligence information with sensitivity to the implications both may have for combating terrorism locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. This course will focus on developing skills and knowledge that enable the participants to develop proactive investigative and law enforcement intelligence techniques for combating terrorism. Throughout the course, participants will be given opportunities, through numerous group discussions and small group activities, to apply the skills and knowledge they have acquired. In addition, participants will be presented with information on the important topic of human rights from the perspectives of both the United Nations and the United States, and the implications for developing relationships with the community as an asset for combating terrorism.

Integrating Counter-terrorism Strategies at the National Level (15 day course)

This three-week course explores how to plan a National Level Counter-Terrorism that addresses the specific needs of the Partner Nation. The course is comprised of two sessions: the first session (Week 1) is for senior policy and decision makers and addresses how to identify, create, and define policies and infrastructure for a single national level counter-terrorism center; the second session (Weeks 2 and 3) is for mid and senior level officers and focuses on how to implement the policies and infrastructure identified in Session 1.  This three-week course is presented in two parts. Through a series of lectures, discussions, case studies, break-out sessions, and group presentations, participants work through the policy, management, and logistical consideration that will shape the outcome of the National Level Counter-Terrorism Center (NLCTC).

Managing Intelligence in Law Enforcement (10 day course)

This course is for senior and mid-level managers responsible for managing a law enforcement intelligence functional unit and disseminating law enforcement intelligence and information. This course provides a framework within which to form (or enhance) and manage a law enforcement intelligence unit.  Participants will examine best practices for establishing or improving an intelligence unit and gain knowledge and skills needed to effectively manage both the analytic process and work with those contributing to the process (decision makers, analysts, investigators, supporting staff, and others).  Participants will to exposed to best practices for ensuring information and operations security, controlling the dissemination of law enforcement intelligence and information, and fostering interagency cooperation.  Through presentations, class discussion, and problem solving activities, and in-depth case studies, participants will learn innovative strategies and hone skills, contributing to their ability to effectively establish, improve, and manage a law enforcement intelligence unit that is poised to enhance their agency’s ability to combat terrorism and serious criminal activity.

Structured Analysis of Competing Hypothesis (3 day course)

This analytic workshop introduces the use of analysis of competing hypothesis and the structured analysis of repeating hypotheses.  Students will discuss why hypotheses testing is important and apply ACH and SACH to develop high quality written estimates and visual presentations through various exercises. 

Using Intelligence for National Security and Law Enforcement Executives (1 day course)

Managers, whether in national security or law enforcement, need to understand the basic principles of the intelligence discipline, and when & how to use it as a management tool.  However, with the exception of military officers and usually those at the most senior ranks in their national governments, there are no formal training programs to teach managers how to use this very powerful management discipline. The purpose of this executive seminar is to provide senior managers and administrators a working level understanding of intelligence, its essential operations and key managerial uses.  The course will focus on the role and responsibilities of managers to define and articulate their specific need(s) for intelligence.  Working in small teams, attendees will draft executive-level intelligence requirements in one of the four basic categories: decision making, action, planning, and information.  They will present their Intelligence Requirements (IR’s) to a panel of experienced national security and law enforcement executives, who in turn, will critique the IR’s for the class as a whole.

Custom Analytic Training

IIS-MU subject matter experts and instructional designers are poised to modify any existing courses to meet client needs.  Clients may choose learning modules from a variety of pre-existing courses or request unique learning modules to be developed to meet their own distinctive training requirements.

 

Contact us for all of your training needs.