Police urged to 'vary route home and don't wear uniform while travelling' amid growing safety concerns

 
Warning: Police have been told not to wear uniform while travelling (Picture: AFP/Getty)
Ramzy Alwakeel13 April 2015
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Police officers are being urged by their trade association to vary their routes home due to an increased risk to their personal safety.

"Don't be predictable," reads a poster campaign issued to Metropolitan Police officers today by the Police Federation. "Vary your route [and] where you park."

It adds that officers should conceal their ID and urges them not to travel in uniform.

The federation claims to represent more than 30,000 Met officers. Chairman Steve White, speaking on a video issued to members, said: "There are some simple steps that you can take to ensure your safety. Quite simply, vary your route to work, make sure you don’t wear 'half blues' [, [and] conceal your identity badges.

"We're working really hard to ensure you are kept as safe as possible both on and off duty. It’s one of the reasons we have recently caused for Taser to be available to all front line uniform response officers who volunteer to carry it."

The terror threat to police was raised in October and again in January. Mark Rowley, the national lead for counter-terrorism at the Association of Chief Police Officers, said at the time: "The threat level to police officers and staff has been heightened, but we are used to confronting risk and danger; this is what we do on a daily basis, and we are well trained."

Poster: The safety campaign also urges officers to vary their routes home (Picture: Police Federation)

The terrorist threat level to police was bumped up to "severe" after a ring in Belgium that had apparently been planning to kill officers was raided.

Last month the Met apparently responded by more than doubling the number of Taser-equipped vehicles that would be working on each shift in the capital.

"Due to JTAC increasing terrorist threat level against police to severe, response teams will be deploying five Taser-equipped vehicles per shift," Hackney MPS said in a tweet. When questioned by the Standard, it added the number would previously have been two, and that the change affected all London boroughs.

The Met Police Federation branch said the number of Taser-equipped vehicles had been raised but that the actual number at any time would depend on how many officers were trained to use them, and that the decision would be down to each borough's top officer.

Met officers get free travel on the Transport for London network thanks to special Oyster cards. Previously they would have needed to flash ID to get through the barriers.

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