Cambridge’s Community Safety Partnership on the 10th of February 2015 heard about a new anti-terror force (well a committee) being established in Cambridge.

The name of the group was introduced as the : “Cambridgeshire Multi-Agency Prevent Delivery Group or C-MAP-DG for short-ish”. It is to be led by Chief Inspector Nick Church.

The committee is being used to “disclose certain elements of the counter-terrorism local profile which will help agencies identify where within the county areas of greatest risk sit”.

A “statutory processes of “channel” was referred to, with the officer saying a number of different agencies had signed up to it in different ways. The meeting was told

“channel is a formalised safeguarding procedure for those who are thought to be at such risk of radicalisation that they are likely to take extreme action”

The officer said it was “absolutely not about taking people who have views either on the far end of the acceptable spectrum or to an extent even views that would go beyond the pale for most people”.

It’s good to hear the police are apparently moving from a focus on thought crime to tackling activities which may actually lead to harm.

Previous “counter-terror” activities revealed in Cambridge have included a spook PCSO whose role a report on PCSOs described :

In Cambridge, the PREVENT agenda and Rich Picture (SB led) intelligence requirement has been positively supported by a local PCSO who has been frequently tasked to gather intelligence on a variety of persons and places of interest.

We have also seen the police in Cambridge trying to spy on students’ unions.

The partnership’s chair Liz Bisset (Salary £91,891/year) promised the meeting the paper, the group’s terms of reference, tabled by police officer “Chris” would be published. As of the time of writing it does not appear to have been published.

See also

• Channel guidance from the Home Office