Metropolitan Police Commissioner


Cressida Dick CBE, QPM


Extracts from Cressida Dick’s Mansion House speech on the


police role in national security...


The threat: Since March this year, the tempo of terrorist attacks has changed. What we are seeing is now being described by the experts as a “shift” in threat, not a spike. We are still at a SEVERE threat level (meaning an attack is highly likely) in relation to international terrorism. But undoubtedly, the rhythm of work is very much increased for the counter terrorist professionals.


Since spring this year, we have suffered the ghastly attacks in Westminster, Manchester, London Bridge and Borough Market and Finsbury Park. 17 weeks of carnage when 36 people have been killed, more than 200 injured and countless others had their lives turned upside down. In addition, six attack


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planning plots were thwarted in the last four months alone, and we can expect that figure to rise.


It is well known that the police and MI5 have over 500 investigations into 3,000 individuals across the UK, assessed as posing the biggest threats. There are some 20,000 other former subjects whose risk remains subject to review. I anticipate these numbers will grow.


International terrorist organisations such as Daesh and Al Qaeda have global and strategic objectives. In the modern globalised world, they exploit technology and the relative ease of international travel to promote that ideology and to project threat across borders. The division between the threat overseas and at home is decreasing and we cannot address the domestic symptoms of the problem in isolation from the international drivers. That said, they manifest differently, not least because we have some very strong measures in place here; for example, our restrictions on firearms and our borders.


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What we have seen in recent months are individuals mostly acting in small groups or apparently alone. Most have a primarily domestic focus – they are “homegrown”. Many have favoured low-tech and relatively unsophisticated methodologies. These less sophisticated attacks can mature faster, making detection harder. The bulk of this domestic threat seems to be from those who are inspired by overseas networks, though there have undoubtedly been some who have been more directly enabled by them also, and we should not assume that attempts by senior leaderships of overseas groups to direct more or less sophisticated UK attacks have gone away.


Similarly, in the virtual world we have to tackle the “enablers,” working with the CSPs to contest the narrative of Jihad and prevent it radicalising the vulnerable, and thereby protect and defend our society’s values. Since 2010, 270,000 pieces of illegal terrorist material have been removed by social media providers, following referrals from the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit.


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