Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation

POLICING CHALLENGES
“The flow of intelligence across
all the activities of prevention
and investigation is impressive.”
UK cities outside London and five further
intelligence hubs were established. These
hubs were each integrated into the police
force in whose area they were located and
formed part of a nationally co-ordinated
police capability.
The main police counter terrorism
hub, Counter Terrorism Command at
New Scotland Yard, was increased by
50 per cent and the role of Assistant
Commissioner Specialist Operations at
New Scotland Yard was formally placed
as chair of ACPO’s Terrorism and
Allied Matters (TAM) Business Area in
order to oversee the development and
maintenance of the police capability and
ensure its alignment with and support for
the national counter terrorism strategy
across the four pillars of prevent, protect,
prepare and pursue.
The former role of National Coordinator
Terrorism Investigations
(NCTI) was widened on authority of
ACPO’s Chief Constables’ Council to
Senior National Co-ordinator Counter
Terrorism, to become the day-to-day
operational co-ordinator of the National
Counter Terrorism Network’s police
resources against national priorities.
ACPO (Scotland) put in place similar and
complementary arrangements in Scotland
and established a counter terrorism
intelligence hub in Strathclyde, which
dovetailed into the network along with
special arrangements in Northern Ireland.
Greater integration
Perhaps the biggest change of all, and
an aspect of UK capability admired by
many other countries, was the much
greater integration of culture, systems,
technologies and working practices
between the police and the security
service. The co-location of staff in
the counter terrorism hubs and the
development of joint operational teams
and practices delivered a near seamless
intelligence and operational capability.
While the security service and
the police have different roles and
responsibilities in law the transition from
intelligence operation to operational
intervention is a well-developed and
robust process and the flow of intelligence
across all the activities of prevention and
investigation is impressive. It now involves
key partners outside of the main agencies,
such as local authorities, prisons, schools,
health services, the voluntary sector and
not least the wider community, whose
participation in the effort to prevent
terrorism is decisive.
Further plots
Even as the National Counter Terrorism
Network was being established, more
attack plans were being uncovered. In
2006, secret intelligence revealed the
existence of a UK-based conspiracy,
linked to al Qaeda, involving over 20 UK
citizens and residents, whereby the plan
was to smuggle home-made liquid bombs,
cleverly disguised as soft drinks bottles, on
up to 12 transatlantic airliners.
The intelligence and urgent covert
operational work revealed this plot
to be at an advanced stage and many
arrests were made precipitously due
to the extreme threat. The subsequent
investigation and convictions in the courts
revealed that had this plot succeeded
it would have had the most profound
consequences not just for the UK but
worldwide.
As if this was not enough, the following
year served to underline that the National
Counter Terrorism Network could not be
established quickly enough when another
attack was delivered in the form of two
massive car bombs placed in central
London’s Haymarket in June 2007,
which were clearly intended to slaughter
hundreds of innocent people who would
have been in proximity to the bombs
when attempts were made to detonate
them.
By sheer good fortune a minor
miscalculation by the terrorists meant
the vehicles could not detonate properly
and a major catastrophe was averted.
The terrorists were pursued and traced
to Glasgow where, in desperation, they
mounted a crude car bomb attack at
Glasgow International Airport, where two
suspected terrorists were arrested. One
subsequently died of burns received at the
scene of the attack and the other was later
convicted of the attack and sentenced to
32 years imprisonment.
Getting upstream
During the course of 2007/08 the
National Counter Terrorism Network
became fully operational and this seemed
to coincide with a reduction in the
number of attack plans being able to
mature to become an imminent threat.
However, two ‘lone wolf ’ terrorists were
discovered in Bristol and Exeter in 2008.
Both claimed to be converts to the
Islamic faith. The former, having
been coached over the internet to
build a viable suicide bomb ‘vest’ with
homemade explosives, was planning to
attack a shopping mall and the latter, an
Asperger’s syndrome sufferer, who had
developed an immature obsession with
Islamist extremism, actually detonated
a homemade bomb in a children’s
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