The public must do more to assist the police in preventing potential terror attacks, a senior United Kingdom police officer has said.
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Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, commenting in light of a series of recent jihadist assaults in Europe, said the United Kingdom faces a “very real” threat.
Sir Bernard Hogan Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said there would be more armed officers at landmarks in the capital following terror attacks in Europe.
It came as Police Federation chairman Steve White warned that it could take at least two years to get the additional 1,500 firearms officers planned nationally in place.
In a blog post for the National Police Chiefs Council, Mr Rowley said officers were not complacent and he “couldn’t agree more” with Sir Bernard’s assertion that Britain is a “hostile environment” for would-be terrorists.
“Picking up people as they gravitate towards extremism early on, so we can intervene with social services and other agencies in a preventative way, is really important”.
Specialist armed police units will provide 24 hour coverage ready to respond to attacks like those in Nice in July if there is an attempt to replicate them on British streets.
Britain’s biggest police force is to put more armed officers on public patrol as part of anti-terrorism plans.
The police chief praised the UK’s geography as a main obstacle for terrorists, saying, “the simple fact we are an island means that terrorists in the United Kingdom would struggle to get the firearms required to repeat attacks similar to those we have seen on the Continent [Europe]”.
Sir Hogan-Howe said: “Our threat level has been at “Severe” for two years”.
The rolling out of Operation Hercules brings the the total number of armed officers in the capital to 2,800.
Mr Rowley said: “It has often been said that communities defeat terrorism and now that’s more important than ever before”.
We tell the public to “Run, Hide, Tell”.
He confirmed that Britain’s largest police force had hundreds of investigations ongoing, ranging from extremists right on the periphery through to small numbers of the highest risk operations. “If you get a chance, run to get away, hide and call us”, he added.
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The commissioner said he wanted the increased firearms teams, trained to confront heavily-armed terrorists, to be visible and they would be patrolling randomly around the clock.
