26 May 2013

Terror training at the Supreme Court

| johnboy
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ACT Policing took over the ACT Supreme Court building yesterday evening (Saturday, May 25) to test their emergency response, coordination and communication strategies for a possible terrorist incident.

The Australian New Zealand Counter-Terrorism Committee (ANZCTC) provides funding for jurisdictional exercises to assist police in developing and practicing their capability to prevent, prepare for and respond to threats or acts of terrorism.

Members from ACT Policing general duties, Intelligence portfolio, Operations as well as specialist teams were called in.

Acting Superintendent of Emergency Management and Planning, Greg O’Ryan, said these types of exercises will be conducted throughout the year to train members in how best to respond to acts of terrorism in the ACT.

“These activities provide us with the opportunity to review our response procedures and to practice the deployment of specialist police resources in response to a possible terrorist incident,” Acting Superintendent O’Ryan said.

“The focus of the exercise is on ACT Policing members’ ability to identify and manage an incident as first responders. We are continually assessing our procedures with the aim of improving our response in order to best manage an incident that may occur in the ACT.”

The exercise ran from 4pm to 11.30pm with access to Knowles Place limited during this time.

ACT Policing thanks the community for their patience following any inconvenience due to limited access to Knowles Place during this time.

[Courtesy ACT Policing]

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I was having dinner in West Row that night and found the police response quite scary actually. I’m guessing that its part of procedure during a terror incident but none of the police vehicles attending used their sirens, only lights. Only narrowly managed to get out of the way finding a park when arriving, crossing the road to west row and again leaving the car-park. Also watched three cars tear down west row to the courts only lights no sirens while eating. Not really complaining but sure wasn’t safe being around there, and I would have liked them to close off a larger area than they did.

I’ve seen a lot of analysis over the last year or so about trends in terrorist activity. Al Qaeda are openly acknowledging that the Western spooks have disrupted them to the point that they don’t have the capability to mount substantial operations like 9-11 at this time. Therefore, they are changing tactics. Instead of concentrating on isolated large operations, they are urging radicalized individuals to conduct many small operations using improvised weapons. The Boston bombings, and the murder of Drummer Rigby in the UK are two exemplary cases of the line they are pushing.

Both of those attacks, and particularly the latter due to its calmly executed but grotesque brutality have gained worldwide attention, which is what the terrorists are aiming to achieve.

I’m convinced that we will see a lot more small scale but intensely violent attacks of this nature in western countries, including Australia, over the coming years.

I’d suggest that that is just about the only time anyone will experience any terror in the Supreme Court especially killers.

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