A public official is a person with official authority who can hold a judicial, legislative or administrative position.
Below are a few examples of public officials:
- a member of the police force
- a member of the armed forces
- a member of security agencies
- a judge
- a member of the government
- a minister
- a civil servant
An intelligence officer on the other hand is a person responsible for collecting information or “intelligence”. As well as collecting this intelligence, an intelligence officer may also have to compile, evaluate, or analyse this information.
Intelligence officers are hired by organisations to gather and analyse this information. These organisations could be private corporations, the police or armed forces, customs agencies and so on.
