| Metropolitan Police Authority hears from businesses about resilience issues
'Counter-Terrorism: The London Debate' also gave them the opportunity to put their concerns to another invitee, Assistant Commissioner Steve House, who heard their concerns and answered questions. Toby Harris, chair of the 'London Debate' panel and member with special responsibility for counter-terrorism, said: "We gained valuable insight into how counter-terrorism policing impacts on those people who are crucial to maintaining our capital's infrastructure and success. "Local government representatives explained how police could communicate more successfully with specific communities. With the Forest Gate police operation as an example, they discussed the need for all police information and communications to be on the community's terms and in their language, to answer the community's own questions (not the questions the police think the community ought to ask), and to be quicker off the mark, so avoiding misinformation and rumour rapidly filling an information vacuum. "Business colleagues called for a single police source of clear, reliable and consistent information for the business community at times of crisis. They also emphasised that more work needs to be done with small and medium-sized enterprises to ensure that they have business continuity plans in place to avoid them going under if they are caught up in a disaster. "London's tourism lost an estimated £536 million following the terrorist outrages last year and global media coverage changed the image of the Met from a bobby on the beat to an armed man in body armour. However with detailed market research and innovative visitor schemes such as 'Texas on Tower Bridge', the 'Oxford Street Festival' and 'Everyone's London' the industry has fought back with amazing results. Passenger figures on the Tube reached a new high by November 2005 and visitor numbers to London had recovered by January 2006. London remains a leading world capital and global tourism hub. "These perspectives on London life are vital to providing Londoners with a strong, integrated approach to fighting terrorism. Their knowledge and lessons learnt are crucial for us to piece together a jigsaw of experience which will help us, together with the MPS, make London as safe as possible for everyone who works and lives here, as well as our visitors." Six hearings have been organised by the MPA to give specifically invited London communities the opportunity to express their views about counter-terrorism policing to a panel of MPA members. Future hearings will be: Following on from these hearings the work will include: Attendance at this programme of events is by invitation only. http://www.mpa.gov.uk/issues/comeng/terrorism.htm
•Date: 13th July 2006• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: Terrorism |
