communities defeat terrorism lessons about working together dick fedorcio director of public affairs...
TRANSCRIPT
Communities Defeat TerrorismLessons about working together
Dick Fedorcio
Director of Public Affairs
Metropolitan Police Service
Date Arial 14pt
Body copy Arial 20/32pt
MPS / National resources
• Special Branch• Force response• BCU activity
• Counter Terrorism Intelligence units (CTIU)
• Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU)
• Counter-Terrorism Command (CTC)
• National specialist CT units
• CONTEST• National Policing Plan• ACPO (TAM) Strategic Plan
Force / BCU capability
Common regional capability
Enhanced national capability
(located in regions)
National specialist capability
National CT strategy
International Liaison
International Operations
Recent Threat Level History
• 1 August 2006 introduced as Severe
• 10 August 2006 raised to Critical (Op Overt)
• 13 August 2006 lowered to Severe
• 30 June 2007 raided to Critical (Op Seagram)
• 4 July 2007 lowered to Severe
• 20 July 2009 lowered to Substantial
• 22 January 2010 raised to Severe
Threat Levels
• Low - an attack is unlikely
• Moderate - an attack is possible, but not likely
• Substantial - an attack is a strong possibility
• Severe - an attack is highly likely
• Critical - an attack is expected imminently
The digital trend...
Body copy Arial 20/32pt
• 1,000 megabytes = 1 gigabyte
• 1,000 gigabytes = 1 terabyte
• 1,000 terabytes = 1 petabyte
The digital trend....
Hi-tech challenges
• 2010 1Tb £60 10 years
• 1994 340Mb £600 6 hours
Since 11 September 2001….
1,661 terrorism arrests across the UK including:
Alva, Clackmannanshire, Birmingham, Bristol, Crawley, Dewsbury, Exeter, Gloucester, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle, Norfolk…….
230 people have been convicted of terrorism related offences
Forest Gate
June 2006
Major counter terrorism op
‘Credible Intelligence’
Raid in Landsdown Road, Forest Gate
Chemical explosive device
‘250 officers involved’
Friday 2 June 2006
Suspect shot
Search of house begins
Initial statement released at 07.00
Extensive media interest
Mobile phone images being sent to the media
from local residents.
Briefing with stakeholders takes place
Leaflet prepared for residents
‘IPCC investigation limits what we can say’
Pooled media interview with Peter Clarke 13.00
‘Not Prepared to Discuss’
Weekend Press
Media vacuum
Speculation
Community impact
Monday 5 June 2006
Daily Mail – ‘Police won’t find a thing’
Guardian – ‘More questions than answers’
Daily Star – ‘Cover up fury’
Peter McKay, Daily Mail….
‘Scotland Yard might have another disaster on its
hands…police more concerned with media management
than proper investigation.’
Community Impact
Community briefings/meetings
BOCU commander meets with
community leaders
Community Together bulletins
Media interviews with local people
Protests and demonstrations
Running commentary from legal team
Urgent Review
Reviewed statement/strategy ‘250 officers’ What about the ‘what ifs’ ? Lack of police presence ‘IPCC investigation limits what we can say’ No rebuttal Misinformation quickly became fact Extensive criticism from ethnic minority media Head of News, Chief Press Officer, Senior Press Officer SO
all on holiday !
And then…..
Brothers released without charge
Nothing found in-house
Loss of community confidence
Demands for an apology
Brothers press conference
MPS apologises to local
community two weeks later
New Counter Terrorism Strategy = OpCI
Operation }
Community }
Investigation }
Borough Borough CommanderCommander
Head of Anti-Terrorist Head of Anti-Terrorist BranchBranch
Under the Spotlight
MPA Scrutiny of MPS media handling Evidence from Met officers, journalists and community reps ‘Reluctance of the MPS to engage with media and to share
information created an information vacuum, subsequently filled with rumour….’
‘Neither MPS or IPCC were willing to comment on fevered speculation….
‘Over use of not prepared to discuss’ ‘MPS needs to be aggressive and quick to challenge
incorrect information.’ Nine Recommendations
Learning from our Mistakes
New Counter Terrorism Media Strategy
Protocol between MPS/IPCC
Enhanced Media Monitoring facilities
Communities Press Team