The EDL demonstration, terrorism and reduction in crime by dccdavethompson

Respond to this post by replying above this line New post on DCC Dave Thompson The EDL demonstration, terrorism and reduction in crime by dccdavethompson Last week was unquestionably one of the most challenging weeks I have seen in my police career, and ultimately one of the most rewarding. The force faced the combined threat of a person allegedly engaged in serial terror attacks on the Muslim community and a major EDL demonstration. The force needed to catch the offender, prevent further attacks, work with communities and manage their concerns and police a major public order threat. With the appearance in court of Pavlo Lapshyn, charged with murder and other terrorism matters, and the great skill in which the EDL event was managed the results so far have been outstanding. It happened because of great action at so many different levels. A fantastic investigation by the CTU; the rapid mobilisation of community and protective security operations by local teams; great work from all the support departments. There has been fantastic leadership by Golds, Silvers, SIOs and LPU and Department Teams and support from other partners and other forces in the region and beyond. Most of all I would pay credit to some brilliant bobbying by staff at Birmingham East without which Lapshyn would not have been found so promptly. As a Chief Officer Team we met twice daily last week to keep on top of the challenges and the spread of great work was fantastic to hear. Thank you so much for all your individual work that has resulted in a great team effort. I think it is important to say that the support and calmness of communities, and in particular Muslim communities, in this situation has been exemplary. I know those of us at West Midlands Police have been very determined to create a safe region for everyone over the last week and catch the person responsible for these dreadful acts. The confidence shown in us has been humbling. There are also a few challenging facts in this case. Firstly, the low level of media coverage the events received. Our circulation of the picture of alleged suspects in the Mosque attacks drew very little coverage; that was frustrating at a time we needed public help. I wonder if you picked another faith and said that there would be a series of bombings at places of worship during a major religious period and the police had a picture of the alleged attacker you might think it would get more coverage? Secondly, in the post 9/11 world Birmingham’s alleged first victim of a terror attack in the city could well be a Muslim man. This underlines extremism and violence are dangerous whatever the motivation and as a force we will be determined to protect all communities. Preventing violence is an issue for all of us. Of less profile, quite rightly, was the coverage of the HMIC Policing in Austerity Report. The force was rated as one of the strongest forces in the country in its programme of change and its performance in dealing with the need to reduce costs and improve services. That is good news and shows some painful and challenging early work has paid off. I guess it isn't a report to be celebrated but it does show we are well placed for the future. The media coverage was interesting regarding reductions in crime last week with the release of annual crime data showing us as one of the country’s most successful forces. I have felt for Chris Froome this week trying to convince some people (not needed here!) that his great performances are drug free. It’s a bit like being a police chief saying crime is down; no one wants to believe you! Happily last week’s coverage, particularly from BBC correspondent Mark Easton, made the point that there is a lot of evidence it is. Sadly that's all come at a time when we have seen some small shifts upwards in the last few weeks on crime; particularly violence in the hot weather. It was a shame one paper really jumped on this to try and play three months statistics against two years worth of reduction. Oh well, but I am sure we will be pulling this back in the next few months. Whatever the figures do say there is no room for complacency. After the media coverage I received a letter from a pensioner in Birmingham outlining, not crime but incivilities, that he sees everyday that make him feel unsafe. We may have cut burglary, robbery and crime in general but there is still a great deal of work to ensure everyone leads a peaceful existence. dccdavethompson | July 25, 2013 at 8:41 am | Tags: crime figures, crime reduction, EDL demonstration, terrorism | Categories: Weekly Update | URL: http://wp.me/p1iQgt-8a Comment See all comments Like Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://dccdavethompson.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/the-edl-demonstration-terrorism-and-reduction-in-crime/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com