Association of Chief Police Officers (Terrorism and Allied Matters)

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This article is part of the Counter-Terrorism Portal project of Spinwatch.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Terrorism and Allied Matters) (ACPO TAM) is the business area of ACPO which deals with terrorism, extremism and associated issues.[1]

Role

ACPO describes ACPO TAM as a "committee of senior police officers responsible for setting the strategic direction of police counter-terrorism activity."[2]

2004 Special Branch guidelines describe ACPO TAM's role as follows:

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO/ACPOS) brings together police officers with senior officials from the Home Office, Ministry of Defence and intelligence agencies within a forum known as ACPO Terrorism and Allied Matters (TAM). This body is responsible for the development of national strategy and policy in relation to Special Branches, advising ministers and responding to consultation on issues of legislation and guidance. It is also responsible for the preparedness of the police service to investigate and respond to terrorist activity. Members of ACPO (TAM) represent the police service in a number of Government fora and provide a central point of strategic co-ordination for the police service.[3]

Unusually for an ACPO committee it includes representation from Scotland.[4]

Assistant Commissioner David Veness described ACPO TAM's relationship with other agencies in evidence to the Commons in 2002:

As a matter of routine we are integrated with all of the government departments that have a key interest in counter-terrorism, so primarily the Home Office, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Defence, increasingly with the Civil Contingencies Secretariat and indeed others, and also all of the agencies—the Security Service, the Secret Intelligence Service and others. The connections are routine. The method by which that is achieved hour by hour is by linkage through the Special Branches.[5]

History

In 2003, following the HMIC Thematic Inspection "A Need to Know", the National Co-Ordinator Ports Policing (NCPP) moved under the Governance of ACPO (TAM).[6]

In September 2006, the committee appointed a director to manage its day-to-day business, along with a National Co-ordinator for Community Engagement and a National Co-ordinator of Special Branch.[7]

In December 2006, Assistant Chief Constable Margaret Wood was named as the first ACPO Terrorism Programme Director. Wood was to play a major role in the creation of Counter Terrorism Units and Regional Intelligence Cells at key locations across England and Wales.[8]

Pre-charge detention

In July 2005, the then chairman of ACPO TAM, Ken Jones called for a number of changes to terror laws, including the extension of the limit on pre-charge detention from 14 days to three months.[9]

0n 28 March 2008, ACPO TAM chair Robert Quick wrote to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith arguing in the following terms:

a pragmatic inference can confidently be drawn from statistical and empirical evidence arising from recent investigations that circumstances could arise in the future which render existing pre-charge detention limits inadequate to ensure a full and expeditious investigation of detained persons[10]

Smith cited this letter in a commons debate on extending pre-charge detention to 42 days. She was challenged by Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve, who claimed other members of the ACPO TAM committee opposed the extension.[11]

Funding and Finance

The ACPO (TAM) Finance and Workforce Planning Board oversees the allocation of Home Office counter terrorism funding to the police service.[12]

People

Past chairs

Affiliations

Subsidiaries

External Resources

Notes

  1. ↑ Glossary, National Counter Terrorism Security Office, accessed 12 February 2009.
  2. ↑ ACPO PROPOSES RADICAL CHANGE TO COUNTER-TERRORISM STRUCTURE, Press Release, Association of Chief Police Officers, 29 September 2006.
  3. ↑ Guidelines on Special Branch Work in the United Kingdom, March 2004, via Statewatch.
  4. ↑ Minutes of Evidence, Select Committee on Defence, House of Commons, 7 May 2002.
  5. ↑ Minutes of Evidence, Select Committee on Defence, House of Commons, 7 May 2002.
  6. ↑ Memorandum by National Co-ordinator Ports Policing, Minutes of Evidence, Select Committee on European Union, House of Lords, 4 September 2007.
  7. ↑ ACPO PROPOSES RADICAL CHANGE TO COUNTER-TERRORISM STRUCTURE, Press Release, Association of Chief Police Officers, 29 September 2006.
  8. ↑ APPOINTMENT OF THE FIRST ACPO TERRORISM PROGRAMME DIRECTOR, Press Release, Association of Chief Police Officers, 7 December 2006.
  9. ↑ CHIEF POLICE OFFICERS RECOMMEND CHANGES TO COUNTER THE TERRORIST THREAT, Press Release, Association of Chief Police Officers, 21 July 2005.
  10. ↑ Hansard debates, House of Commons, 1 April 2008.
  11. ↑ Hansard debates, House of Commons, 1 April 2008.
  12. ↑ MARGARET WOOD, DEPUTY CHIEF CONSTABLE, ACPO TERRORISM AND ALLIED MATTERS, British Association for Women in Policing, accessed 12 February 2009.
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