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Our counter-terror system works – we need calm not drastic measures

Britain's counter-terror police are good at their jobs - Bloomberg
Britain's counter-terror police are good at their jobs - Bloomberg

Many of those who died in the bombing at Manchester Arena were children. Their tragic deaths may leave us feeling as if Isil is sinking to a new low in its barbaric war, but it’s worth remembering that these extremists have executed children in the Middle East. 

Terrorists do not discriminate by age. What attracts them most of all is the prospect of causing mass devastation very quickly. It could be on a bus, a train, at a local community centre or football ground. Any gathering where there are crowds of people has a greater risk of being targeted, as I and my fellow officers knew when we worked to ensure our stadiums were safe during the London Olympics.

Parents will be worrying about their own children after this attack, perhaps thinking twice about sending them to a concert in the future. Some will be hoping to see a show of force from the security services in order to put their fears to rest, but that would be playing into the terrorists’ hands.

The Olympic Stadium in Stratford, East London - Credit: John Walton/PA Wire
The 2012 Olympics saw a huge security operation Credit: John Walton/PA Wire

Imagine if the police erected a “ring of steel” around arenas, with outer perimeters and cordons being put up to bolster security. Where would you stop? That sort of response would leave the terrorists feeling vindicated. Anyway, you’ll never prevent a determined loner from using themselves or technology to slip a homemade device into the venue unless you put in blast resistant doors and physically strip-search everyone. 

Authorities have not rushed to conclude whether this was a direct attack on children because it would quadruple the fear and panic across Britain’s school campuses. Parents might then think schools should be tightening up their security, but even that doesn’t guarantee the children’s safety. Most universities in America have a campus police force, yet still people get through.

Every morning that you wake up and nothing has happened is a success

Predicting the unpredictable is not possible. What the police have to do is plan as much as possible, and work with local communities to gather the intelligence necessary to ensure these attacks do not happen. 

If you overreact, you make the situation worse. Terrorists want to provoke a reaction and turn people against each other. The Northern Ireland Government tried to keep order during the Troubles by introducing internment, which led to the hundreds of people being imprisoned without trial due to suspicion of being republican militants. That policy, a senior IRA man told me, was one of their biggest recruiting opportunities.

It’s a difficult time to be a chief constable. Every morning that you wake up and nothing has happened is a success. Sadly in the modern world,  it’s not a question of if an attack happens but when.

UK terror threat timeline

Security services have stopped and prevented many attacks, on many occasions foiling the more organised plots thanks to good intelligence.

Hundreds of people walk down Whitehall past Downing Street every day. It’s impossible to search them all unless you created a police state. The challenge for police in Manchester is similar in scale. There are so many events for them to watch over, and these terrorists are not necessarily people on MI5 or MI6’s radar. They neither have the time, nor authority to watch over them all.

Officers are well-trained in responding to an attack, as they showed on Monday, but the harder part is preventing it. It’ll take time to establish the facts around the bombing, but what’s important is we keep calm and carry on in the meantime.

Sir Hugh Orde was President of the Association of Chief Police Officers and Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI),

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