Vertical Markets

Virtual cops on social media street

by Mark Rowe

The prospect of ‘virtual police’ doing ‘on street’ patrols has been aired by Craig Macksey, Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner. He spoke to London Assembly members of the ‘levers’ to take down ‘how to’ books (on terrorism) and ‘cook books’ (about bomb-making). Macksey said: “I would encourage people, if you are on a social media site, and you see stuff on there that’s wrong, they all now have a report button, and things do happen.” When police have stepped into social media, and been a ‘virtual’ police officer, it’s had an effect, and you should expect to see more of that ‘on street’ policing in social media, he added, while acknowledging the ‘legal framework’.

Earlier, Cressida Dick, Met Commissioner, told members that 30 per cent of ‘Channel’ referrals because of suspicions of violent extremism were ‘domestic’ – that is, not Islamist but right-wing anti-Islamist. On the question of recent terror attacks showing volatile and unstable people, using low-tech methods, she suggested that much of the work by government will be around intercepting people as they are beginning to think of serious violence, and of preventing people becoming violent extremists, and such work will be ‘key within communities’.

She also covered van hire, after the May terror attack on Westminster Bridge and in June against London Bridge and Borough Market saw hire vehicles. She wondered aloud if such hire might have to be ‘regulated in any further way’ or with more or tweaked legislation.

She was asked about the securing of big events in London, such as the Trooping the Colour ceremony and the Notting Hill Carnival. She recalled the recent temporary raising of the terror threat level from ‘severe’ to ‘critical’, the highest level, when soldiers were deployed in place of some armed police; and extra security measures at buildings (including City Hall, pictured, where the meeting was held). Such measures were a possibility for the future, ‘but we have to look at the current threat, the current intelligence, what will keep people safe, and whether it is a practical tactic in the circumstances. But absolutely, searching is one thing we put in place and will be in the future.”

Cressida Dick also covered knife and gang crime – ‘a lot of it comes back to drugs markets’ and much is ‘alcohol-fuelled’, and agreed on the need for a more consistent approach. She spoke too of theft of and crimes done by moped, stolen by mainly young men, that needed to be ‘designed out’, as an earlier crime trend, of theft of cash boxes from cash in transit vans, was designed out, she recalled. She admitted that while crime (such as knife and violent crime) had seemed to be going down, now it seemed to be going back up.

She also answered questions from Assembly members about internal Met issues, such as management and morale. On the Met ‘working environment’, for officers and staff, she said a ‘whole series of things are under way’; she touched on body worn video that all front line officers will get – ‘they love that’ and mobile devices, so that officers will not have to go back to a station to report something (‘a really good bit of kit’); and Tasers (‘we don’t want young people to be frightened’).

Craig Macksey, Cressida Dick and Sophie Linden, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, at the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) were speaking at the London Assembly police and crime committee, on Wednesday, June 21. Replying to a question, Sophie Linden said that the Mayor’s Ofice would report in October on how far the Harris report last year into London’s preparedness to respond to a major terrorist incident has been taken.

You can view and hear the two-hour session at City Hall on the london.gov.uk website.

More in the August 2017 print issue of Professional Security magazine.

Related News

Newsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay on top of security news and events.

© 2024 Professional Security Magazine. All rights reserved.

Website by MSEC Marketing