New recommendations for community-based counterterrorism policing highlight risk of alienating Muslim communities.
Date: 21 February 2017
Two former London police officers have written a recommendation for practice aimed at practitioners of community-based counterterrorism policing.
Dr Tim Parsons, senior lecturer in MSc in Crime, Safety & Security, and Dr Bob Lambert a former lecturer at London Metropolitan University, have written ‘Community-Based Counterterrorism Policing: Recommendations for Practitioners’ which was published at the end of 2016.
The recommendations are aimed at highlighting how different aspects of counterterrorism policy and practice may sometimes be at odds with one another. It aims to reconcile tensions and is based on Dr Parsons and Dr Lambert’s practical experience from working in the police force and academic experience from teaching at London Met.
The project started when Tim and Bob were both serving police officers; Tim was the Head of Equality, Diversity and Human Rights in the City of London Police, and Bob was Head of the Muslim Contact Unit in the Metropolitan Police.
“It is far better to work constructively towards a common interest, than to be constantly distracted by those issues upon which we disagree,” said Dr Parsons.
“We urge UK policymakers to work constructively in pursuit of shared goals such as increasing protection from violent extremism and terrorism.”
The counterterrorism recommendation has been published by Taylor and Francis Group which is part of the Academic Publishing Division of Informa PLC, a leading business intelligence, academic publishing, knowledge and events business.
The full publication can be viewed on the Taylor and Francis website.
