National counter-terrorism police had to rely on updates from Twitter for nearly two hours after the Manchester Arena attack, the inquiry has heard.
Wait, what?
The SO15 Reserve, a 24-hour operations centre for national counter-terrorism operations, was still having to rely on Twitter for information at 12.13am, nearly two hours after the attack.
The evidence is being given by this man.
"I think they must have been listening to the force radio or heard something happen in that area and he had contacted his wife and said, 'Don't go to sleep because it looks like something's happening',"
Great! The terrorist response is reliant on gossip from a friend of a friend...
Mr Basu said social media could be a help but added: "It's a massive hindrance when there's so much of it that it takes experienced detectives and analysts a long time to go through the material and that obviously could divert resources."
You aren't kidding! So...why did you have to rely on it?
The force duty officer at Greater Manchester Police, who was supposed to notify SO15, was said to be "overloaded" and had to get a junior officer to answer his phone.
Perhaps recruiting police officers on the basis of their skin colour, religion or gender rather than their ability to deal with pressure isn't a winning strategy, eh, GMP?
Or maybe they should, in any future terrorist attack, just tell callers to ask the terrorist what he wants and give it to him?
"Perhaps recruiting police officers on the basis of their skin colour, religion or gender rather than their ability to deal with pressure isn't a winning strategy, eh, GMP? Or maybe they should, in any future terrorist attack, just tell callers to ask the terrorist what he wants and give it to him?"
ReplyDeleteSimply brilliant but I will have to return later...I'm still spilling coffee and falling over with laughter, JuliaM.
That's it exactly. It wasn't that the analysts didn't 'put the pieces together', it was that senior management threw away the box lid with the picture on it and then threatened to fire anyone who said 'hey, it looks like it could be a steam train'.
ReplyDeleteThe stolen bike story is appalling but not surprising. What to do? Go round to buy it accompanied by some big lads, apprehend the crooks apply zip ties and stuff them in the car boot, take them down to the police station, tip them on the floor and politely suggest to the desk sergeant that the police do their effing jobs?
ReplyDeleteIn my mind I am seeing "Q", the original, explaining to Bond, the original, how his backup team will have him covered at all time, by means of this new secure comms system called Twitter.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the comment made that 'maybe people are monitoring police radio traffic' is exceptionally dishonest at worst or at best ignorant. This is because all police radio traffic is now sent via the heavily encrypted Airwave system rather than in the clear on either VHF or UHF radio channels. It is almost completely impossible for those with consumer, ie not government, grade equipment no matter what the frequency coverage and no matter what sort of decryption software the signal is put through, to eavesdrop on modern police radio traffic.
ReplyDelete"...I will have to return later...I'm still spilling coffee and falling over with laughter..."
ReplyDeleteStick around, there's - sadly - bound to be more where that came from...
"It wasn't that the analysts didn't 'put the pieces together', it was that senior management threw away the box lid with the picture on it and then threatened to fire anyone who said 'hey, it looks like it could be a steam train'."
👏
"The stolen bike story is appalling but not surprising."
It's appalling that it's not surprising!
"In my mind I am seeing "Q", the original, explaining to Bond, the original, how his backup team will have him covered at all time, by means of this new secure comms system called Twitter."
🤣
"...exceptionally dishonest at worst or at best ignorant."
I think it's clumsy phrasing - the 'people' mentioned are the police, just those not directly involved in the case.