Nick Aldworth, Chief Superintendent, National Co-ordinator, Metropolitan Police, National Counter Terrorism Policing HQ, made the comments in a panel debate to discuss how to tackle grey spaces; undefended areas between security protected zones.
According to Aldworth the “annus horribilus” of 2017 has forced the police into a major rethink of its capabilities when tackling terrorism.
“After 2017 we had to make a step change in our thinking to deal with the way threats have changed since terrorism in the 80s and 90s,” he said. “I’m not sure we really understood what that evolution looked like last year.”
As a result of the rethink, the force is “looking to easily integrate private security into national policing efforts”, he added.
Major incidents could be handled more easily with private sector involvement, but there are several steps the police must take to make this a reality, said Aldworth.
“People ask me why the private sector couldn’t deal with the poisoning incident in Salisbury, for example,” he said. “The truth is I think they could.”
“I have no doubt that the capability exists in the private sector to help in incidents such as Salisbury, but we need to create public confidence in that.”
In order to help generate that public confidence, Aldworth said the police still have a major role in helping to determine which systems and solutions are most effective.
“The state doesn’t need to respond to every problem, but we need to protect the public from snake oil salesman,” he said.
Additionally, a new system must be put in place allowing the police to access shared information with the private sector.
“The most important thing is to develop a national information exchange where we can both push and pull information,” he said.
“We need to be able to send out a call to action to private security operatives. There are 320,000 SIA-licenced operatives; if I can mobilise that in the same way I can mobilise our armed forces and police, that would be a very powerful tool.”
Also taking part in the discussion on grey spaces was Simon Whitehouse, Director of The Security Institute, who discussed the critical role technology can play in policing.
“The technology now available enables us to tell if somebody looks suspicious, or anxious. If they’re wearing a backpack. We can tell if they’re casing out a grey space or potential target,” he said.
“It enables the police and security forces to become proactive, not reactive.”
However Chris Aldous, Director, Design Security, sounded a note of caution that private security must be correctly implemented and managed to be effective.
“All too often the security plans outside the project guideline are not well-stated, with the financial need not clearly outlined,” he warned.
“Ultimately it comes down to finance, and nobody wants to pay for it. It you haven’t arranged security in a business case perspective, a lot of times the developer will not go with your plan.”
In addition, the ongoing operation of the systems must be carefully adhered to, he said.
“I’ve been back to buildings where the facilities management team have been disabling security measures. They think ‘we don’t really need this’ and they’re creating a risk.”
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I was there, the log of attendees will include my name, Tim Baber. But I was not there, the real meeting was the display of real time containment of a rebellious audience member over the trials for every sector of what I still call monarchprogramming(dot)com All I was trying to say was that the usually disruptive monarch program was proof no security system was secure. ( I cite Moldova’s cash or the overseeing Basel Group, maybe the hack of the century we have seen?) My mention of Tom Barleycorn was a jibe at my own emissions that Twitter might yet… Read more »