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Law enforcement, intelligence and counter-terrorism units
Practical training for intelligence, law enforcement and security professionals who gather, analyse and act on intelligence. Our courses cover open-source research, intelligence analysis, surveillance, undercover work, elicitation, behavioural detection and counter terrorism, and are taught by former UK detectives, intelligence officers and covert specialists.
Since 2014, Futurum Risk has delivered more than 500 training programmes in over 60 countries. Law enforcement agencies, government departments, security contractors and NGOs have trusted us to train their intelligence, surveillance and investigation teams.
Practical training designed for people who collect, analyse and act on intelligence. Our courses range from open-source research and analysis to surveillance, undercover work and counter terrorism, and each one can be delivered on its own or combined into a longer programme.
Most of what an investigator needs to know about a person or company is already online, in social media accounts, company filings, archived web pages and photographs. This course teaches investigators to find that information, verify it and record it without alerting the subject. A participant might start with a single username and finish with a verified profile of the person behind it, the people they know and the companies they are linked to.
There are more than five billion people online, and most of them leave a trail. Social media accounts, company filings, archived web pages, photographs, usernames and leaked data can identify a person, map who they know, show where they go and link them to companies and networks. For an investigator, very little of this needs a warrant or a subscription. It needs method, discipline and the right tools.
This course teaches that method. Participants learn to research safely and anonymously, use advanced search techniques and specialist tools to find information that ordinary searches miss, verify every finding before relying on it, and record it with an audit trail that will stand up to scrutiny. It moves from the foundations of online research through people, email, phone, image and company investigation to verification and reporting. Tools and platforms change quickly, so the course is updated to reflect the ones that work now.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
i2 Analyst’s Notebook turns phone records, bank statements and intelligence reports into charts that show how people, organisations and money connect. This course takes analysts from building their first chart to using network searches and social network analysis to identify who matters in a network and where the money goes.
i2 Analyst's Notebook and iBase are among the most widely used analytical tools in law enforcement and intelligence. Analyst's Notebook shows how people, organisations, phones, vehicles, events and transactions connect. iBase stores and manages the large data sets behind those charts, so analysts can search, query and update them as an investigation develops.
Most users only scratch the surface of what the software can do. Our foundation course gives new users a firm grasp of the entity relationship model the software is built on, and takes them to the point where they can produce charts fit for a briefing. Our advanced course concentrates on analysis: using network searches, social network analysis, heat matrices and histograms to answer real questions about who matters in a network and where the money goes.
Exercises are built around the crime types your team works on. We have delivered this training with a focus on human and wildlife trafficking, environmental crime, fraud, theft and drug smuggling. Analysts who have attended tell us they leave far more confident and quicker with the software.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
Good analysis tells decision-makers what the information means and what they should do about it. This programme develops the thinking skills, analytical techniques and briefing skills that turn raw information into intelligence, from testing competing explanations to identifying targets and opportunities for disruption in a guided scenario.
An effective analysis capability helps an organisation decide where to focus, what to prioritise and when to act. Without it, teams collect more information than they can use and decisions are made on instinct. The difference is rarely software. It is the quality of the analyst's thinking and their ability to explain what the information means.
This programme develops both. It covers the intelligence cycle and the analyst's toolkit, structured thinking techniques that reduce bias and test competing explanations, advanced techniques for targeting and disruption, network analysis in i2 Analyst's Notebook, and the briefing skills analysts need to make their product count. For law enforcement clients, it extends into problem solving, evidence-based and predictive policing, and neighbourhood profiling.
We have helped police forces, government agencies and law enforcement organisations internationally raise the skills and effectiveness of their analysts, and the same methods are used by intelligence teams in finance, insurance, compliance, pharmaceuticals and the wider corporate sector.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
Our surveillance courses train teams to follow a subject on foot, in vehicles and through technical means without being detected, and to establish who that subject meets and what they do. Taught by nationally accredited UK surveillance trainers, the courses run from basic tradecraft to managing covert operations, with practical exercises in urban, rural and semi-rural settings.
A covert capability gives investigators options they would not otherwise have. Surveillance establishes who a subject meets, where they go and what they do, and it can confirm or rule out intelligence before any overt action is taken. Done badly, it compromises the operation and puts people at risk.
Our surveillance portfolio covers foot, mobile and technical surveillance, along with the wider covert disciplines that support them. Courses run from basic tradecraft through to managing covert operations, and practical exercises take place in urban, rural and semi-rural settings so that teams are ready for the environments they will actually work in.
We have helped clients upskill teams in individual covert disciplines and have helped create, train and mentor national intelligence and covert operations teams. Courses are taught to UK standards and adapted to the legal framework in each participant's country.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
This course prepares officers for undercover deployments online and in person. They learn to build and hold a credible identity, gather intelligence and evidence without compromising the case, and manage the risk and welfare demands that come with long-term deployments. It runs from foundation to advanced level.
Criminal networks now recruit, trade and communicate online as much as in person. Undercover operatives need to be able to build and hold a credible identity in both, gather intelligence and evidence without compromising themselves or the case, and manage the pressure that comes with long-term deployments.
This course combines tried and tested physical infiltration methods with the online skills modern deployments require. It covers legend building, maintaining cover, online engagement with criminals, test purchase and decoy work, integrity testing and full infiltration, along with the risk management, welfare and legal disciplines that keep operatives safe and evidence admissible.
The course is led by the former head of undercover training for the UK's largest police service, who designed what is regarded as the most demanding covert course in UK policing and has since trained law enforcement agencies and NGOs across Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East in countering trafficking, child sexual exploitation, terrorism and corruption.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
Field Intelligence Officers receive, grade and develop the intelligence that tells commanders what to do next. On this course, new officers work a single operation from the first piece of intelligence through subject profiling and open-source research, finishing with a live surveillance exercise and a briefing of their final intelligence product.
Field Intelligence Officers sit at the heart of an intelligence unit. They receive, record and grade intelligence, research subjects, build the picture that tells commanders what to do next, and often carry out the first surveillance on a subject themselves. Getting these foundations right determines the quality of everything that follows.
This course gives officers those foundations. It covers the role of the Field Intelligence Officer, intelligence management and grading, open-source research, building subject profiles and basic foot surveillance. The whole course is built around a single running operation: participants receive intelligence on a subject at the start and develop the case through the course, finishing with a live surveillance exercise and a briefing of their final intelligence product.
We have delivered this course for the Indonesian Government and other government clients, and our trainers have built intelligence capability for police services in Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and Malawi. Each course begins with a training needs analysis, and examples are drawn from the crime types participants face at home, including wildlife, drug and human trafficking.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
Participants learn how skilled interviewers and intelligence officers draw information out of ordinary conversation, and how to steer a discussion towards the outcome they need. They practise the techniques in person and online, and learn to recognise when the same methods, including social engineering, are being used against them.
Elicitation is the skill of using normal conversation to learn about a person, their work, their plans and the people around them, without them realising they have given anything away. It is a core intelligence technique, and it is just as useful in due diligence, negotiation, sales, client relationships and investigations.
This course teaches participants how elicitation works, the techniques and tradecraft behind it, and how to combine it with influencing strategies to steer a conversation towards the information or outcome they need. It also teaches the reverse: how others use the same techniques to extract sensitive information from you and your staff, including through social engineering and online approaches.
The workshops are facilitated by former members of UK government, military and law enforcement, and are delivered to both public and private sector teams.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
This course trains security staff to spot hostile intent before an incident happens. Participants learn to establish a baseline for their environment, recognise behaviour that does not fit and question people confidently, with training built for the place it will be used, from airports and border crossings to hotels and venues.
Before most attacks, thefts and frauds, someone carries out reconnaissance. They watch, test and probe, and their behaviour under that stress is different from the people around them. Behavioural detection teaches security staff to notice that difference and respond to it, giving them a layer of protection that does not depend on technology or profiling.
Our behavioural detection training covers human behaviour and decision making, establishing a culturally neutral baseline for an environment, suspicious behaviour indicators, how criminals and terrorists plan, operational tactics and behavioural questioning. It is built for the place it will be used, from airports and border crossings to hotels, casinos, sporting venues and shopping centres.
We designed and delivered the train-the-trainer behavioural detection programme for 45,000 safety and security officers at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, created the first behavioural detection interviewing programme for the Royal Malaysia Police, and have supported Airports Council International in developing its behavioural detection programme for airlines and airports. The programme lead's MSc research found that behavioural detection officers do reduce the risk of terrorist attacks in public spaces when deployed as part of a wider security strategy.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
Our counter-terrorism training follows the UK’s four-part strategy of Pursue, Prevent, Protect and Prepare. Each programme is built around the client’s threat picture and legal framework, and can combine investigation, intelligence, protective security and crisis response, delivered by trainers who have worked in counter-terrorism policing.
Terrorism is countered at every stage: identifying and disrupting those who plan attacks, protecting the places they target, preparing to respond when an attack happens, and preventing people being drawn into it in the first place. The UK's counter-terrorism strategy organises this work under four headings, Pursue, Prepare, Protect and Prevent, and our training follows the same structure.
Our counter-terrorism trainers have investigated terrorism, run covert operations within counter-terrorism policing and trained counter-terrorism units internationally. Programmes are built around the client's threat picture and legal framework, and can combine intelligence, investigation, protective security, behavioural detection and crisis response.
Our work includes counter-terrorism intelligence training and capacity building in North Africa on behalf of the British Embassy, and the behavioural detection programme that formed part of the counter-terrorism strategy for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
These courses are designed for people whose work depends on gathering, analysing and acting on intelligence. We deliver them to public sector agencies and to private sector teams working within the law of their jurisdiction.
Law enforcement, intelligence and counter-terrorism units
Intelligence analysts, researchers and field intelligence officers
Surveillance, undercover and covert operations teams
Border control, customs, aviation and transport security teams
Corporate security, investigation and fraud teams
Due diligence, KYC and compliance teams
NGOs working against trafficking, exploitation and organised crime
Event, venue and hospitality security teams
Covert courses are offered only to organisations whose role and purpose we have confirmed.
Each programme is planned around your team, so the time is spent on the skills they will use.
We discuss what your team needs to be able to do, who will attend and what they already know. Where it helps, we run a training needs analysis and a short pre-course questionnaire. You then receive a proposal with a full course outline, tailored to your team.
We build the scenarios and exercises from your own environment and agree the content, format, location and dates with you.
Each course follows the Explain, Demonstrate, Imitate and Practise (EDIP) model. The trainer explains and demonstrates each skill, participants copy it under guidance, then practise it in scenarios until it holds under pressure, with trained role players where the course calls for them.
Every participant receives a course workbook. End-of-course reports for individuals and the sponsoring organisation are available on request.
Covert courses are offered only to organisations whose role and purpose we have confirmed.
Most courses can be taken in more than one format, delivered in person, online or as a blended programme, at your premises or a venue we arrange.
A short session that introduces the subject and the risks, suited to managers and larger groups.
A hands-on workshop on one area of a course, built around your team's work.
The complete course, tailored to your team, for those who will use the skills day to day.
Prepares your own trainers to deliver the course, so the capability stays in your organisation.
It depends on their role. Analysts usually start with Intelligence Analyst Training or i2 Analyst's Notebook & iBase, investigators with Open-Source Intelligence & Cyber Investigation, and officers new to intelligence work with Field Intelligence Officer. We recommend a starting point at the initial consultation.
Surveillance, undercover and source handling courses are offered only to organisations whose role and purpose we have confirmed. Digital & Physical Undercover is limited to government, law enforcement and approved NGO clients.
For i2 Analyst's Notebook & iBase, participants need access to licensed copies of the software. Futurum Risk is independent of the software vendor. On the open-source courses, participants work on their own machines so they leave with their tools already set up.
Most can be delivered online or as a blended programme. Courses that depend on practical deployments, such as surveillance and undercover training, are delivered in person.
Yes. Any of these courses can be combined into a longer programme, such as Intelligence Analyst Training with i2 Analyst's Notebook & iBase, or Field Intelligence Officer with Elicitation & Influencing Skills.
No. We do not run open-enrolment courses. Every programme is commissioned by an organisation for its own people, which is how we can build it around them.
Courses are delivered in English, and our trainers also deliver in Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, French and German. Course materials can be translated.
Every programme is priced once we understand what you need, including the number of participants, the content and the location. You receive a clear proposal before anything is agreed.
Tell us who will attend, what they already know and what they need to be able to do. We will recommend the right course or combination of courses and send you a proposal.