The increased terrorist threat:
How can policing, business and security providers support the changes needed?
Det Chief Supt Scott Wilson National Coordinator – Protect and Prepare. National Counter Terrorism Policing HQ New Scotland Yard
F
ollowing the significant increase in terrorist incidents in 2017 and the call
for a step change in our response, we asked leading security professionals on their views.
Commissioner Ian Dyson QPM Commissioner City of London Police
Counter-terrorism policing is constantly reviewed, with new strategies and tactical
options frequently tested and deployed. The City of London Police is at the forefront of this renewal and refreshment programme, as evidenced by Project Servator, which was tested and launched from the City. As we move into 2018, we want to encourage businesses and security providers to look to Servator, learning the tactics of this innovative approach to deter hostile reconnaissance and with it, terrorist activity.
Last Autumn, security staff from Aviva in the City joined my officers in a Servator deployment, learning how they can adopt the skills of Servator officers to keep their buildings and staff safe. Project Servator is being rolled out nationally in 2018, and with this in mind, I urge businesses and security professionals across the country to engage with their local police forces and learn more, not only about Project Servator, but other tools they can use to deter attacks and protect society.
The risk of terrorist attack remains high and we can only keep our communities safe by working together. A change of mindset is underway: protecting our communities is not a task only for the police, it’s one for all to embrace – businesses, security professionals, everyone. You can help – if you see something suspicious, report it.
In the UK today we face an evolving terror threat picture which, as recent tragic events have illustrated, is again growing and changing beyond expectations. It is now larger in scale, involves more individuals, including the vulnerable and volatile, in less coherent, more atomised structures connected across the world, and utilises ever more simplistic tactics to attack increasingly soft targets.
Our emergency, intelligence, and health services employ a unified and coordinated approach, alongside local and national government, to ensure we are able to provide a robust response to all terrorism and crime related eventualities. We also jointly undertake threat and intelligence informed emergency planning, and regularly test and exercise our plans, to ensure that we have effective responses to the evolving threats we face.
However, to respond to the threat picture, police need the support of businesses to effectively deliver Protective Security measures. There is a need to be flexible and resilient to change – supporting and innovating – working together, building a greater awareness amongst the business and security industry.
Building such relationships enables a two-way working relationship, thus allowing an improved customer experience, information sharing process seeking to continuously improve business relationship to build greater community confidence and reassurance.
Police also require the support of the general public to both be aware of how to respond to a terrorist incident through our Run, Hide and Tell briefings and be encouraged to report suspicious behaviour to the Anti- Terrorist Hotline. We urge the public to be alert but not alarmed – the police service and our partners are doing everything we can to help protect the security of our citizens, public institutions, critical national infrastructure, and businesses and places.
6 © CI TY S ECURI TY MAGAZ INE – WINT ER 2017 www. c i t y s e c u r i t yma g a z i n e . com
Richard Woolford Strategic Director of Security and Counter Terrorism City of London Corporation
Police and Security Service
resilience is stretched now more than ever before, through austerity cuts, increased diverse demands in public safety, in addition to the fundamental shift and fluidity of terrorism. They balance this with risk mitigation to traditional terrorist threats that cannot be ignored. Now is the time to be innovative and collaborative with a fundamental ambition on trust and mutual support; the Police and Security Service cannot tackle this alone, we need a united response.
Businesses have developed outstanding bespoke security to protect their own buildings and staff within. Security providers have embraced both occupational and operational accreditation and now lead professionalism around guarding and protective building measures, globally. Let us not forget 24th April 2018 will be the 25th anniversary of the Bishopsgate bomb, which shaped much of this change. Moving forward together, I believe the Police need to ‘dare to share’, fill the vacuum of information, trust public and private sector partnerships. Never damaging the integrity of investigations, but embracing wider understanding of attack methodology continually and expeditiously post events, enables businesses and security professionals to protect the public domain.
Factual cascaded briefings through organisations such as CSSC and TINYg enable authoritative empowered collective decision making. As a collective, businesses now need to work together, in trusted collaboration, with a shared aim to create a joint culture of security across boundaries, target hardening the public realm, and removing the red zones to deter hostile reconnaisance, in partnership, thus deterring attacks. Private and Public security providers should embrace the collaboration, trust and work together, step away from the curtilage of their buildings, support one another, share information and learning, train together, support the police and embrace Project Servator and REAct to Servator, in the same way as Project Griffin and ARGUS.
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