Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
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POLICING CHALLENGES<br />
“The flow of intelligence across<br />
all the activities of prevention<br />
and investigation is impressive.”<br />
<strong>UK</strong> cities outside London and five further<br />
intelligence hubs were established. These<br />
hubs were each integrated into the police<br />
force in whose area they were located and<br />
formed part of a nationally co-ordinated<br />
police capability.<br />
The main police counter terrorism<br />
hub, Counter Terrorism Command at<br />
New Scotland Yard, was increased by<br />
50 per cent and the role of Assistant<br />
Commissioner Specialist Operations at<br />
New Scotland Yard was formally placed<br />
as chair of ACPO’s Terrorism and<br />
Allied Matters (TAM) Business Area in<br />
order to oversee the development and<br />
maintenance of the police capability and<br />
ensure its alignment with and support for<br />
the national counter terrorism strategy<br />
across the four pillars of prevent, protect,<br />
prepare and pursue.<br />
The former role of National Coordinator<br />
Terrorism Investigations<br />
(NCTI) was widened on authority of<br />
ACPO’s Chief Constables’ Council to<br />
Senior National Co-ordinator Counter<br />
Terrorism, to become the day-to-day<br />
operational co-ordinator of the National<br />
Counter Terrorism Network’s police<br />
resources against national priorities.<br />
ACPO (Scotland) put in place similar and<br />
complementary arrangements in Scotland<br />
and established a counter terrorism<br />
intelligence hub in Strathclyde, which<br />
dovetailed into the network along with<br />
special arrangements in Northern Ireland.<br />
Greater integration<br />
Perhaps the biggest change of all, and<br />
an aspect of <strong>UK</strong> capability admired by<br />
many other countries, was the much<br />
greater integration of culture, systems,<br />
technologies and working practices<br />
between the police and the security<br />
service. The co-location of staff in<br />
the counter terrorism hubs and the<br />
development of joint operational teams<br />
and practices delivered a near seamless<br />
intelligence and operational capability.<br />
While the security service and<br />
the police have different roles and<br />
responsibilities in law the transition from<br />
intelligence operation to operational<br />
intervention is a well-developed and<br />
robust process and the flow of intelligence<br />
across all the activities of prevention and<br />
investigation is impressive. It now involves<br />
key partners outside of the main agencies,<br />
such as local authorities, prisons, schools,<br />
health services, the voluntary sector and<br />
not least the wider community, whose<br />
participation in the effort to prevent<br />
terrorism is decisive.<br />
Further plots<br />
Even as the National Counter Terrorism<br />
Network was being established, more<br />
attack plans were being uncovered. In<br />
2006, secret intelligence revealed the<br />
existence of a <strong>UK</strong>-based conspiracy,<br />
linked to al Qaeda, involving over 20 <strong>UK</strong><br />
citizens and residents, whereby the plan<br />
was to smuggle home-made liquid bombs,<br />
cleverly disguised as soft drinks bottles, on<br />
up to 12 transatlantic airliners.<br />
The intelligence and urgent covert<br />
operational work revealed this plot<br />
to be at an advanced stage and many<br />
arrests were made precipitously due<br />
to the extreme threat. The subsequent<br />
investigation and convictions in the courts<br />
revealed that had this plot succeeded<br />
it would have had the most profound<br />
consequences not just for the <strong>UK</strong> but<br />
worldwide.<br />
As if this was not enough, the following<br />
year served to underline that the National<br />
Counter Terrorism Network could not be<br />
established quickly enough when another<br />
attack was delivered in the form of two<br />
massive car bombs placed in central<br />
London’s Haymarket in June 2007,<br />
which were clearly intended to slaughter<br />
hundreds of innocent people who would<br />
have been in proximity to the bombs<br />
when attempts were made to detonate<br />
them.<br />
By sheer good fortune a minor<br />
miscalculation by the terrorists meant<br />
the vehicles could not detonate properly<br />
and a major catastrophe was averted.<br />
The terrorists were pursued and traced<br />
to Glasgow where, in desperation, they<br />
mounted a crude car bomb attack at<br />
Glasgow International Airport, where two<br />
suspected terrorists were arrested. One<br />
subsequently died of burns received at the<br />
scene of the attack and the other was later<br />
convicted of the attack and sentenced to<br />
32 years imprisonment.<br />
Getting upstream<br />
During the course of 2007/08 the<br />
National Counter Terrorism Network<br />
became fully operational and this seemed<br />
to coincide with a reduction in the<br />
number of attack plans being able to<br />
mature to become an imminent threat.<br />
However, two ‘lone wolf ’ terrorists were<br />
discovered in Bristol and Exeter in 2008.<br />
Both claimed to be converts to the<br />
Islamic faith. The former, having<br />
been coached over the internet to<br />
build a viable suicide bomb ‘vest’ with<br />
homemade explosives, was planning to<br />
attack a shopping mall and the latter, an<br />
Asperger’s syndrome sufferer, who had<br />
developed an immature obsession with<br />
Islamist extremism, actually detonated<br />
a homemade bomb in a children’s<br />
90 | POLICING <strong>UK</strong>