Local Intelligence Analysis vs Regional /National /Global

Your security. Whether it be personal or home security, intelligence gathering and analysis is part of the equation. And local intelligence should be your main or immediate priority. Here’s what I mean…

Situational awareness. While it’s important to know what’s happening outside of your locality, within the context of your personal and home security it’s best to spend more of your time focused on “local”, and local intelligence /analysis.

I recall reading about a “rule-of-thumb” for this (intelligence /analysis). It was 60-30-10. That is, 60% local, 30% regional, and 10% national/global.

3 Levels Of Intelligence Analysis

 
1. Local
2. Regional
3. National/Global

Local Intelligence

That which is immediately important to us.

– Home
– Neighborhood

Your immediate sphere – your home, your neighborhood, your locality.

Why? Because what will matter most is your local situation.

And should it ever happen, regarding SHTF, having local intelligence will be paramount to your security and your decision making as you move forward through the event.

While the ‘stuff’ that’s going on nationally (or regionally) may eventually affect you locally (which is why it’s important to know and understand those levels), it is very important to have a grip on your own area of operations – your home – your neighborhood – your town. These things will affect you first, and the most!

Local intelligence /analysis is the most important. It’s literally your small local geographical sphere of operations. Within this sphere is its own geography, terrain, streets, and your own home and property. The people who live around you, and in your neighborhood. Your local town. The various businesses. There’s a town government and those who run it. Services. Local law enforcement. Emergency personnel. Etc.. There’s a lot going on in your own locality.

The people within your local sphere. They each have their own opinions, beliefs, political leanings, motivations, their own readiness (or lack of), their own influence among the community. How much of that are you aware of? How much do you know about your own neighbors? Your town?

The more you know about the people within your community, the better prepared you will be (knowledge wise) about the specifics that may affect you, be it good, bad, or indifferent.

Regional Intelligence

The area where we can identify larger trends.

– Regional
– County
– State

Chances are that you’re not in direct contact with sources beyond your locality. Regional, county, state. Information /intelligence will likely come from external sources. For example these sources may include your local news outlets, local radio, newspapers (do people get those anymore?), internet, word of mouth, etc..

However the goings-on within your county and state will potentially impact you. It’s good to keep up with this. And if motivated, to provide your own influence into such matters if that’s what floats your boat.

National/Global Intelligence

The largest in overall scope.

– National
– Global

It’s easy to get caught up in this level of intelligence /analysis! The mainstream media pushes very, very hard to influence us all on a grand scale. Most of us here know that there are powerful agendas at work, and indeed some of this could eventually affect you and I in very real ways. And it’s quite important in my opinion to stay on top of what’s happening on the national and global scale. I tend to spend a lot of time in this area of intelligence gathering, because it interests me (and concerns me!). Why? Because there’s some really bad ‘stuff’ going on at this level.

However from the standpoint of time spent regarding one’s security and intelligence gathering, it certainly makes sense to get your ducks in a row (first) from the perspective of your own local situation.

Update: The logic of a multi-tiered outlook (global-national / regional / local) is not unique or proprietary. It’s simply a common sense approach (to many things – not just ‘security’ or ‘intelligence’). I’ve written about this basic concept a number of times over the years here on the blog.

With that said, I was inspired to write this particular article after having read a book that I purchased a number of years ago. I found it to be quite interesting and a good read on this topic (and many other aspects besides this one). My source was ReadyMadeResources:

SHTF Intelligence: An Intelligence Analyst’s Guide to Community Security

[ Read:

When The Grid Goes Down – It’s Going To Be ALL LOCAL

Cooper Color Code – The 4 Stages of Mindset Readiness

Magnetic Driveway Alarm with No False Alarms

9 Comments

  1. Very good Ken,
    People get all wrapped up in National or world events, for us out here MOST of that stuff barely affects us.
    Local is our biggest concern, and at the same time our biggest blessing, pretty mellow place here, and geographically isolated so lots of what happens even on another island let alone on the continent may never even register over here, and especially in our isolated rural community.
    Good reminder

    1. As a former Hawaii resident I definitely understand having a “local” only mentality. Especially when you’re in the middle of the Pacific Ocean 3,000 miles from the U.S. mainland. But that blessing could also be a curse. Your governor had a mind-fart a couple years ago when his staff mistakenly pressed the alarm for a nuclear attack on the islands and he “lost” his password to turn off the alert. My sister recollects that she just lay in bed waiting for the explosion. I’m not saying that the island chain is less safer than what happens here on the mainland but Pearl Harbor happened for a reason. And that reason was global.

  2. That’s why ham is important to me and mine. What ya don’t know CAN hurt ya. Granted, once everyone is here, most 2 way comms will be very local. Listening or occasionally xmit over distances, is important too. Who knows what we’ll need? If ya don’t have intel (comms) I think you’ll wish ya did. In fact, it will likely become a priority for those who DON’T have comms.

    Is comms or knowledge of comms a barterable thing? I don’t know, but I bet we’ll eventually find out. Easier than ya think.

  3. this is one reason i come to this site. to get boots on the ground info from people around the country in different areas. i sort through many news links everyday, but i take everything i hear from any of them with a grain of sand. they all have their own agenda’s. listen, but don’t believe everything you hear. it all depends on the source, whether it be the internet, TV or any radio. i don’t know those people personally and i’m not going to take anyone’s word as gospel. again this why i come here, i think most of us here are all on the same page.
    always be vigilant, be aware, but don’t believe everything you hear. misdirection is a real weapon now.

  4. True.
    The local county commissioners screw us worse than anybody else, while the populace are focused on the national level.

  5. Rough Rider,
    cb radios are a great short range communication tool. we can generally get 2 miles with what we have in our trucks. with a good antenna, i know of people who can transmit 20 miles with their’s, further than that if the tropo. cooperates on skip. if you have a community you can always send a message down the line. sometimes you don’t want to send messages outside of your area for everyone to hear. keep it close and don’t give yourself away.
    OPSEC is going to be very important now for a while.
    best of luck

  6. This is an amazing recap of Mike Shelby / Sam Culper’s work. Interesting. – Mike

    1. Yes, The article was originally written sometime around 2018/19 – don’t remember exactly… Then reposted during 2020 with a few edits – and hopes for renewed conversation about the general topic. I’ve just added a section at the bottom regarding my original inspiration for the particular post…which was inadvertently left out during the most recent update/republish.

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