UK police launch new anti-terrorism campaign: terror threat ‘becoming more varied’
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- Published: Friday, 10 March 2017 09:06
In response to the changing terrorism threat landscape a new national campaign by the UK’s Counter Terrorism Policing has been launched. ‘Make nothing happen’ focuses on the critical role the public can play in defeating terrorism. The campaign will be the first under a new branding platform called ACT: Action Counters Terrorism. This urges the public to report suspicious activity to help police bring dangerous offenders to justice and prevent terror attacks in the UK and overseas.
At a time when the scale, volume and complexity of the terrorism threat continues to grow, police are advising the public to act to report any potential suspicious activity or online content they come across and are concerned about.
The message of the new campaign is: ‘don’t worry, don’t delay, just act’ by:
- reporting suspicious activity to the police by calling confidentially on 0800 789 321 or at gov.uk/ACT
- reporting online terrorist and violent extremist material online
- remaining alert at home, work and when out and about, so we can all play our part in defeating terrorism and keeping everyone safe.
Mark Rowley, National Counter Terrorism Policing lead, said:
“Since 2014, the threat of terrorism has been severe, which means that an attack is highly likely. When attacks have occurred in the past, people have said that they suspected something was wrong but were worried about wasting police time by coming forward. That couldn’t be more untrue – with some of our highest priority investigations benefiting from information received from the public. We have always said that ‘communities defeat terrorism’. That is why the ACT campaign urges the public to do just that.
“It is very encouraging that in a third of cases involving our most serious terrorist suspects we have benefited from information from the public. The number of calls and online reports we receive is also increasing. This is testament to people’s trust in the police - but now we are appealing for even more.
“Counter Terrorism Policing is working hard to keep the public safe and we have, with our partners in the security services, helped stop 13 attacks since the appalling murder of Lee Rigby in May 2013. However, advances in technology make it more complex and challenging for us to spot would-be terrorists because it’s easier for them to be in contact with others and be radicalised in a relatively short space of time.
The threat is becoming more varied and the move towards low-tech attacks on crowded places, like those we have seen in major European cities and beyond, makes it even more important everyone remains vigilant and acts, by calling us confidentially, if they are concerned about suspicious activity.”
