WILTSHIRE Police is supporting a national campaign encouraging the public to help them defeat terrorism by reporting suspicious behaviour and activity.

The ACT (Action Counters Terrorism) public awareness campaign launches today (Tuesday, March 20). Alongside security partners, police are working tirelessly to tackle the threat of terrorism, and are experiencing about 30 per cent more counter terrorism work than a year ago.

Newly-appointed Assistant Commissioner of Specialist Operations (ACSO), Neil Basu, has praised the public’s willingness to ACT in response to last year’s rise in terrorist activity, which resulted in record numbers of people contacting the police through online referral forms and the confidential hotline to report suspicious behaviour and activity.

The threat from terrorism to the UK still stands at severe, meaning an attack is highly likely. This threat has risen twice to critical for brief periods over the last year. During this time, the country has seen five tragic terrorist attacks, with ten others prevented.

ACSO Basu is now launched the second phase of the ACT Action Counters Terrorism campaign, featuring a new 60-second film based on real life foiled plots, which shows examples of terrorist-related suspicious behaviour and activity, as well as attack planning methodology.

It aims to educate the public about terrorist attack planning and reinforce the message that any piece of information could make the different between a lethal attack or a successful disruption.

Of the nearly 31,000 public reports to Counter Terrorism Policing during 2017, more than 6,600 (21.2 per cent) resulted in useful intelligence - information which is used by UK officers to inform live investigations or help build an intelligence picture of an individual or group.

Research carried out by Counter Terrorism Policing suggests that while more than 80 per cent of people are motivated to report suspicious activity or behaviour, many are unclear exactly what they should be looking for.

ACSO Basu said: "Like other criminals, terrorists need to plan and that creates opportunities for police and the security services to discover and stop these attacks before they happen. But we need your help to exploit these opportunities, so if you see or hear something unusual or suspicious trust your instincts and ACT by reporting it in confidence by phone or online.

“That could be someone buying or storing chemicals, fertilisers or gas cylinders for no obvious reasons, or receiving deliveries for unusual items, it could be someone embracing extremist ideology, or searching for such material online.

“This new film has been made to try and help people understand recent terrorist attack-planning methods, but also to demonstrate that each report from the public can be one vital piece of a much larger picture. The important thing for people to remember is that no report is a waste of our time, trust your instincts and tell us if something doesn’t feel right.”

Superintendent Dave Minty, of Wiltshire Police, said: “This campaign is really important – communities defeat terrorism therefore it is vital that we make sure the public are aware of suspicious activity and how they can report it. We want people to continue to feel alert but not alarmed.

“Throughout the week we will be sharing messages across our social media encouraging members of the public to ensure they feel well informed about how to report suspicious online content or behaviour.”

The public can report suspicious behaviour and activity via the online tool: www.gov.uk/ACT.