Revealing comment made by lead PREVENT Officer

In an article written today in the local Cambridge news on PREVENT and how the Cambridge community can play its part in tackling terrorism, the Cambridgeshire Constabulary's lead officer on PREVENT made a revealing comment about the risk that extremism poses to society.

Following a major conference in the city this week where community leaders joined police officers and councillors to discuss the city's PREVENT agenda, Chief Inspector Chris Balmer stated:

"Very, very few people who export or espouse these extremist views will go onto plan or take part in real terrorist activity - they tend to be people who are vulnerable in the first place."

It would seem that by acknowledging that there is a very low risk to society, PREVENT's lead officer has undermined the entire mandate of the PREVENT program, which operates on the basis that society is at a huge risk from 'extremists' and that there is therefore a need to root out 'radical' and 'extremist' ideology in order to counter terrorism.

This is particularly concerning given the Government's continuing efforts to expand the size and severity of the PREVENT program (read CAGE's PREVENT Report), using the potentially large and ever-growing threat from extremists as a justification for its expansion. As it stands, PREVENT aims to co-opt universities, schools, nurseries and health care providers into helping the state identify potential extremists, using them as bodies to conduct state surveillance. However, until now, this has been operated on a voluntary basis. The risk that 'extremism' presents is now being used by the Government to justify the need for the Counter Terrorism and Security Bill, which will make it a legal obligation for health, education, penal and local government bodies to identify and tackle 'extremism' and to protect those 'vulnerable to being drawn in to terrorism'. This will only serve to worsen and normalise the already pervasive policing of free expression conducted and encouraged by PREVENT at all levels and in all spheres.

In response to the Government's disproportionate, unnecessary and draconian policies, CAGE, along with a number of groups and organisations, has launched a community campaign against the CTS Bill. Please visit the website to find out more about the far-reaching impact of the bill and how to be part of the campaign to stop it: www.stopthebill.co.uk