Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) review - concurrent report

Report: 07
Date: 12 July 2007
By: Chief Executive

Summary

The purpose of this report is to outline some of the key challenges and concerns for the Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) from a range of equality and diversity perspectives.

A. Recommendations

That members agree:

1. To note the progress made by the Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) to date and its on-going commitment to develop a representative workforce.
2. To receive as a matter of urgency an Equality Impact Assessment on the MPS policy on the use of telephone hotlines, particularly the Anti-Terrorism Hotline and Communities Together Hotline as they relate to the Deaf communities.
3. To request SO15’s views on the impact of their service delivery (operational activity and/or executive action) on community cohesion and tension.
4. To invite SO15 to submit their views to the forthcoming scrutiny into succession planning and talent management in the MPS.
5. To receive a report in the next business cycle on the progress made by SO15, particularly in relation to corporate equality initiatives, diversity training, the Diversity Excellence Model and vetting.

B. Supporting information

1. One of the most challenging aspects of current policing is its response to terrorism. As stated in paragraph 10 of the MPS’s report, ‘Public safety is and will always remain to be our principal objective.’

2. The merger of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch (SO12) and the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch (SO13) into the new Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) is a significant development in police activity.

3. Members acknowledge the increased levels of counter terrorism operations in terms of their scale, nature and complexities in response to current threat assessments. Also acknowledged is the commitment, professionalism and levels of increased targeted community engagement delivered by the MPS, led in some instances by SO15, which helps inform major operations.

4. Against this backdrop of success, the purpose of this concurrent report is to highlight some of the key equality and diversity issues emerging in relation to SO15 as they relate to employment, service delivery and community engagement. The four areas are:

1. Developing A Representative Workforce
2. Engaging with Deaf communities
3. Service Delivery
4. Succession Planning and Talent Management

Developing a representative workforce

5. As detailed in its report, SO15 has made extensive efforts to make its workforce as representative of London’s diverse communities as possible and continues to do so. However, the Command acknowledges that it still has a way to go, particularly in employing female police officers (9% of SO15’s workforce as opposed to the MPS’ average of 20%). Challenges also remain in successfully recruiting Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) officers to the Command.

6. Two of the issues highlighted in the report related to vetting and training. SO15 acknowledges that employing some BME police officers and staff whose relatives were born outside of the UK can add weeks to the vetting process. SO15 should explore (if it has not been done to date) whether its leverage, insights, expertise and/or contacts in other countries could assist in speeding up the vetting process to the benefit of the MPS as a whole.

7. It is encouraging to hear that SO15 will revisit the Diversity Excellence Model and seek to integrate this into the Command’s strategy; members will be keen to hear how this progresses in the next business cycle, together with the wider Command-wide training implications across all six equality strands. The benefits derived from Equality Impact Assessments training are also a positive development and can assist in fostering community reassurance.

Engaging with deaf communities

8. The MPS Disability Independent Advisory Group (DIAG) has recently raised a number of access issues in relation to the Communities Together hotline and Anti-Terrorist hotline.

9. At the time of writing, it appeared that two of the key concerns expressed were:

1. the mini-com number for the Communities Together call centre is not available on the same 24 hour basis as the main telephone number; and
2. There appeared to be no mini-com number on the Anti-Terrorist Hotline

10. The Commissioner has consistently stated that ‘it is communities that defeat terrorists.’ SO15 has consistently stated that ‘Public safety is and will always remain to be our principal objective.’ Given the current threat assessments in view of the recent car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow, leading to a regional, national and international investigation, can the MPS risk not being able to obtain intelligence from all sections of London’s diverse communities, whatever its source? In light of the training implications highlighted in paragraph 7, members have asked as a matter of urgency for an Equality Impact Assessment on this issue.

Service delivery

11. SO15’s detailed responses in this report to the questions posed by the MPA, and in the MPS’s wider answers to the ‘Counter-Terrorism: The London debate’ agenda, indicate that, at the present time, the focus of the Command’s activities is in targeting and preventing mainly (but not exclusively) young men who have been attracted and/or ‘radicalised’ to particular strands of Islamist/Jihadist/Wahabbist thinking/ideology and who wish to criminally disrupt, damage and destroy public order, property and life in the UK. These sets of convictions are contrary to mainstream Islamic teachings and beliefs.

12. In pursuing these individuals, a number of community tensions are generated which could have an adverse impact on community cohesion. One of the obvious ones is the ‘demonising’ of young Muslim people, particularly young men, who have no relationship with these terrorist activities. SO15 has worked extensively with the MPS Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate and other key stakeholders to communicate its activities in an effort to build and maintain public trust and confidence with all sections of London’s diverse communities.

13. Yet, an attendant consequence of such investigations is that tensions will continue to arise within families, within communities and between communities; how these are managed will be critical in fulfilling the MPS’ mission of working together for a safer London. Equal Opportunities & Diversity Board will provide an opportunity for SO15 to articulate how it is currently managing this aspect of its service delivery and how it proposes to manage this in light of future developments.

Succession planning and talent management

14. The MPA is conducting a Scrutiny into succession planning and talent management. This Scrutiny occurs against the backdrop of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the British Association of Women Police (BAWP) and the National Black Police Association (NBPA) exploring the potential use of ‘affirmative action’ [1].

15. Given SO15’s experiences in aiming to develop a more representative workforce, its views on succession planning and talent management may prove to be a valuable contribution to the Scrutiny as there may be benefits to be gained for both the MPS and the MPA.

Ongoing and future challenges

16. There remain on-going and future challenges for SO15. One of the key ongoing challenges relate to performance. In relation to service delivery, EODB has developed a series of critical success factors, key outcomes and effective and efficient stakeholder engagement from an equality and diversity perspective. These are:

1. Critical Success Factors: No significant disparity in the MPS’ response to the experiences of people based on their identity in relation to a) the incident(s)/crime(s) they have experienced or b) alleged to have committed.
2. Key Outcomes: Clear levels of accountability; increased performance at local Safer Neighbourhood and pan-London level; reduction in communities’ fear of crime; increased levels of public satisfaction when encountering the police; clear evidence of personal diversity objectives linked to performance; use of equality impact assessments to structure the delivery of service; evidence of sharing good practice with other business units; and use of community impact assessments in communicating key outcomes.
3. Effective & Efficient Stakeholder Engagement: Evidence of provision of accurate and intelligible information; of providing information in formats relevant to community groups; evidence of using the experiences of victims, perpetrators and witnesses to inform future service provision.

17. Another on-going challenge for the Command is that its activities have synergy with other corporate equality initiatives such as the MPS Single Equalities Scheme, the Police Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme (PRDLDP) and the Equality Standard for Local Government (ESLG) . As a result of this, SO15 should have opportunities to share its learning with other parts of the MPS.

18. Finally: organisations such as the MPS and the MPA often talk about ‘corporate memory’. This is where and how information about how an organisation acts and respond is maintained and used. The MPS should also recognise that there is ‘community memory’ – that is, shared histories and perspectives from different communities in terms of how they have engaged with the police. Some of this ‘community memory’ can be recent and raw – take for example some of the experiences of some young people in relation to the use of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) or stop and search or sections of the Muslim communities in relation to counter-terrorism activities. On account of ‘community memory’, it may take significant efforts on the part of the MPS to engage with some sections of London’s diverse communities. The actions, interventions and impact made by the MPS, led by SO15 in relation to counter terrorism, at local, pan-London and national levels may play a significant role in engaging with either ‘hard-to-hear’ communities or communities that may have had negative memories/experiences with the police.

C. Race and equality impact

1. The MPS’ response to counter-terrorism is one of the most significant areas of police activity. However, in keeping London safe, there are a range of major equality and diversity implications to be co-ordinated, consulted upon, managed and delivered. The purpose of this report is to highlight the areas of concerns for the MPA and the steps it can take to ensure the successful integration of equality and diversity in SO15’s day-to-day business.

2. That said, one of the key areas that SO15 – as well as the MPS - still has room for improvement is in communication. Clearly explaining (whilst acknowledging certain legal constraints) the rationale for specific operations, their timings, the nature of the interventions, assessments of an operation’s impacts on communities and working with communities to manage any arising tensions and cohesiveness is critical to the success of any future operations, coupled with intelligence-led policing. The language used in relation to such operations will equally be critical in maintaining the trust and confidence of all communities.

3. For any such communication strategy to be genuinely successful, it has to be accessible and take into account the diverse needs of Londoners.

D. Financial implications

1. There are no financial implications directly arising out of this report. However, there may be financial implications, which subsequently arise in the MPS’ response to the queries arising from access issues in relation to the anti-terrorism hotline.

E. Background papers

• Counter-Terrorism: The London Debate
• MPS response to full Authority (May 2007 & June 2007)
• MPS Single Equalities Scheme
• CoP report: 7 June 2007

F. Contact details

Report author: Laurence Gouldbourne, Equality and Diversity Unit, MPA

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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