Countering the threat from international terrorism


City of London Police Commissioner, Adrian Leppard, QPM MBA


Pursue – The intelligence gathering, investigations and prosecution of terrorists both in the UK and abroad.


Prevent – The crucial role we must play in local communities and indeed in other countries to influence misplaced ideology and to prevent people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.


Protect – Building sophisticated risk assessment and target hardening strategies to strengthen our protection of those people or places that terrorists might seek to attack.


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ity of London Police Commissioner, Adrian Leppard, QPM MBA, spoke


recently at the International Institute for Counter Terrorism conference in Israel, on the UK approach to counter terrorism. In extracts from that speech, he highlights the key components of the UK approach and his view on the future threats and challenges we face.


In the UK, the sharing of intelligence and assessment of risk posed by potential terrorist groups or individuals are managed through a national process. This has resulted in one of the most cohesive government responses to terrorism anywhere in the world. I was part of a national team working through government and the Association of Chief Police Officers that helped shape this response to terrorism. These new units are now Co-ordinating Hubs where specialist police resources work directly alongside the Security Services.


One of the great benefits of this structure is the ability to draw upon a wide range of national assets to deal with threats at key stages of the investigation. This has been used to great effect during a number of counter terrorism investigations where the suspects have lived and operated across large parts of the UK.


The front line response to terrorism in the UK is led by the police. We have built structures that reach down into local communities in a systematic and comprehensive manner which engages Neighbourhood Policing Teams, Local Councils, Education Authorities and a host of other bodies and agencies to deliver an ‘end to end’ response to the terrorist threat.


The police helped shape the UK Government Counter Terrorism Strategy, known as ‘Contest’ which was revised and re-published in 2011. The strategy is divided into four separate pillars (or as we call it… the 4 x Ps).


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Prepare – Where an attack cannot be stopped, to ensure we are ready to respond in a co-ordinated manner across all agencies to save life and bring a swift return to normality.


Some of the priorities this year under the Protect strand are to strengthen the UK borders, reduce the vulnerability of the UK transport network and improve the protective security responses for crowded places that may be subject of a fast moving attack.


Within the Prepare strand every part of the country has built multi-agency response plans with identified multi-agency Command and Control platforms and specialist skills that can bring every asset necessary to save life, track down offenders and bring normality back to a community.


At the sharp end of this our specialist military and armed police resources exercise frequently and review tactics and equipment, whilst emergency services work with government and run ‘live play’ exercises several times a year.


The Prevent agenda is particularly important since it focuses on encouraging people away from following their extremist agendas. It seeks to utilise community contacts, police, health workers, religious institutions and educational establishments to identify and re- educate vulnerable groups. This strategy has reaped benefits through concerned Muslims reporting individuals or groups who have been promulgating violent extremists’ rhetoric, often resulting in police involvement and a joint referral to respected individuals in local communities who can negate the rhetoric through rational debate and explanation.


Under the Protect and Prepare strands much work has been undertaken looking at vulnerabilities of key sites, whether key to “UK plc” or transport and utilities infrastructure. Police, local authorities, other


Government departments and developers come together to review new and existing projects and locations to “target harden” those sites and protect those within. Vulnerable locations are identified both nationally and locally by assessing their exposure to risk. This is assessed by nationally trained and accredited staff using a templated threat matrix. Premises and locations which are considered essential to the national infrastructure are clearly prioritised using this methodology and mitigation action plans are put in place for local delivery.


Looking to the future, there is no doubt that Al Qaeda continue to suffer significant disruption owing to the loss of many senior members of their group. Inevitably this must have an effect on their operational capability. Just a few months ago, the US Government went on record stating that they believe that Al Qaeda’s days are numbered and they are a group in terminal decline. If that is the case, I’m afraid the threat will still continue from Al Qaeda inspired terrorism and indeed the growing threat of state sponsored terrorism also.


The internet has a wealth of information about Al Qaeda, their ideologue and their propaganda. In recent years, the UK has experienced a number of individuals who have become “self radicalised” through viewing such material online and then have either gone on to plan or conduct attacks in the UK.


We should not be seduced into thinking that the systematic erosion of the Al Qaeda infrastructure has proportionately reduced the threat we face. How this manifests itself worldwide is linked in a very clear way to two core issues: firstly, the underlying support or legitimacy that the potential terrorist experiences from the host society and secondly, the effectiveness of the government response.


Extremist ideology advocating violent action in some parts of the world is embraced by large factions of society and it is here that we see more organised and planned terrorist acts. Whilst Al Qaeda central may be weakened, there will be a continual threat as groups inspired by Al Qaeda, or indeed any other political or religious motivation, fill ideological vacuums in more fractious political environments. And where host groups within those communities align themselves to that cause we can expect to see rapid infrastructure development that can act as a springboard onto international attack planning.


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