Security and counter-terror in 2019

Will 2019 prove be a pivotal year for security and counter-terror forces in the UK?

As Brexit moves into the final planning stage, and we have gained full oversight of what the 2019 budget will look like, decision makers will be working hard for the year ahead.

Philip Hammond MP recently announced that counter-terror police in the UK would receive £160m in additional funding and, whilst perhaps there will never be enough, even in the austere times we live in, our counter-terror forces welcome this funding.

Rightly so, the UK Police have presented the message: We cannot do everything, alone. So, who can? Neil Basu, the Chief of Counter-Terrorism Policing, will look to make very tough decisions about how this money is spent, in a time where grass-roots policing could be more important than ever to build communities, stamp out hate crime and encourage a collective responsibility for our own safety.

This need for a collectivist society will be more pertinent than ever before, because the biggest threat to 2019 is the influx of radicalised UK and European individuals coming back from the now felled ISIS. On a community level, these evils are best defeated through community spirit; we’ve seen how religiously driven hate speech has led to the rise of politically driven hate speech, and vice versa. On an operational level, information is the key to combatting this threat.

Any increase of potential threats crossing the border should put the agenda of information sharing at the forefront of all counter-terror forces, and that’s why any Brexit deal must continue to allow the flow of information between mainland Europe and the UK.

It’s hard to see a world where operations and preparations are not intelligence driven, and while the proliferation of monitoring technologies have made aspects of an officer’s work easier, much of the cross-departmental training and preparedness remains the same, as this is the ‘bread and butter’ work for the people protecting our country.

I believe that industry and our emergency services must share their expert insights and innovations to make sure we are as protected as ever before. My role as an advisor for SCTX 2019 will encourage like-minded experts to come and share their insights across the entire security and counter-terror landscape, on an international stage – developing conversation and helping sculpt the future.

Commander Robert James Broadhurst OBE QPM – Security and Counter Terror Expo 2019 Advisory Board member https://www.counterterrorexpo.com