Police often rely on tips when thwarting terror threats: researcher
Posted Aug 11, 2016 06:13:20 PM.
Last Updated Aug 11, 2016 06:21:23 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA (NEWS 1130) – Catching a lone actor terrorist is difficult and police say they often rely on tips and social media.
Members of terror suspect Aaron Driver’s family noticed big changes in his behavior as he started to more deeply ascribe to beliefs held by the Islamic State.
A terrorism researcher who doesn’t think reporting this type of unusual behavior to police is necessarily a paranoid thing to do.
There’s a fine line between being alert and preventing a crime and a big brother type state.
That’s according to Jez Littlewood, Assistant Professor at Carleton University, who says studies find those close to them notice a change.
“In nearly half the cases, it became clear that there was an individual who knew what this person had been talking about or indicating that they were going to act in a violent way.”
He says police in the UK have made it clear they want tips.
“They would rather you do that than sort of not do that. Because, you know, we have the resources and the ability to pull things together and make a determination as opposed to if you don’t get in touch with us and we don’t know then none of us know how it’s going to play out.”
Littlewood adds lone actors are more difficult to spot to it’s often things they say to people or on social media which tip police off.
Lone actor terrorists are more difficult to spot, that’s why one expert thinks it’s up to us to report some suspicious behavior to police.
