Communities Defeat Terrorism
Lessons about working together
Dick Fedorcio
Director of Public Affairs
Metropolitan Police Service
Date Arial 14pt
Body copy Arial 20/32pt
MPS / National resources
International
Liaison
International
Operations
National
CT strategy
National specialist capability
• CONTEST
• National Policing Plan
• ACPO (TAM) Strategic Plan
• Counter-Terrorism Command
(CTC)
• National specialist CT units
Enhanced national capability
(located in regions)
• Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU)
Common regional capability
Force / BCU capability
• Counter Terrorism Intelligence
units (CTIU)
• Special Branch
• Force response
• BCU activity
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....
1000
900
800
Internet Speed
700
Digital Storage £60 will buy
Ave seized Hard Drive (GBs)
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
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
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


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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
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Borough
Commander
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Head of Anti-Terrorist
Branch
 Investigation
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