Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has said society must confront the “the terrible ease with which it can be claimed that disagreement over foreign policy can justify murder” and that his force needs to “engage with Muslim communities at the most obvious level”.
Speaking at the Urban Age Summit in Berlin today Sir Ian highlighted how the Met had worked over the past decade to build trust between “parts of the African Caribbean community in London and the police” but warned that the threat of terrorism meant the force could not afford to spend that amount of time building links and trust with Muslim communities.
Sir Ian said “too much of the debate about all aspects of terrorism is being confined” to the debate over civil liberties but accepted there was “an important balance to be maintained between the preservation of hard fought for liberties and acceptance of the proposition that new challenges require new methods.”
He also said the “current critical threat can best be reduced through traditional – or, at least, already tried and proven – approaches in policing.”
