With the festive rush getting underway, Counter Terrorism Policing launched its biggest ever winter advertising campaign to the public on the 19th November, as part of ACT: Action Counters Terrorism.
This campaign aims to encourage the public to remain vigilant, look out for suspicious behaviour and inform people how to report their concerns, providing a ‘whole society’ approach where police, security staff, retail workers and the public come together to minimise the chance of attacks and mitigate the impact they can have.
That is what the ‘Step Change’ initiative – which aims to bring the public and private sectors together to collaborate on security matters – is all about, meaning retailers and other businesses operating in crowded places are also being asked to play their part in countering the terrorist threat.
Businesses can do this in two ways, the first being to sign up to ACT Awareness, the innovative online training scheme designed to help industry better understand, and mitigate against, current terrorist methodology. Developed in a ground-breaking partnership between Counter Terrorism Policing and retail giant Marks & Spencer, it covers how to spot the signs of suspicious behaviour and what to do if an attack should take place.
Free to use, the course can be divided into short sections to suit business needs. However it takes just 45 minutes in total to complete – 45 minutes that could save lives.
Secondly, experts from Counter Terrorism Policing will be asking businesses to think about their contingency plans this Christmas, asking them to draw up a ‘Sixty Second Security’ plan which has the power to improve their reaction to emergency situations.