Who wouldn’t want to help stop terror attacks? The public have certainly pledged to do their bit and Croydon communities need to play a part too.
Counter Terrorism Policing’s ‘ACT (Action Counters Terrorism) campaigns aim to show communities how they can make a difference. This work, along with strengthening partnerships between public bodies and key business sectors like retail, vehicle industry, sport and entertainment, has resulted in a steady increase in the number and quality of intelligence reports that have been of help to police.
Previous national campaigns have seen an increase in intelligence reports of up to 50%, and currently over a fifth of reports to the Anti-Terrorist Hotline and gov.uk/ACT result in useful intelligence for CT officers.
A new phase of the campaign has now been launched, with the aim of making that conversion rate even higher by continuing to highlight suspicious behaviour and encouraging people to ACT - a combined Communities Defeat Terrorism cinema advert and social media campaign, including a new short film, appealing for everyone to remain vigilant and report concerns.
This is not a campaign for Counter Terrorism Policing only or just for big cities. Attack planning can happen anywhere and any attack carried out in the UK impacts on all communities and on public sector resources. Therefore we all need to play a part.