Top UK counter-terror cop calls on public to help prevent attacks

He said the fact most British police are unarmed gave the public a healthier relationship with officers, helping neighbourhood officers become the nation’s eyes and ears, and praised the UK’s tolerance and acceptance.

He said the public make more than 3,600 “contributions” to stopping terrorism each day and that there help had been vital to helping disrupt plots.

It comes after the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe warned that a terror attack in the United Kingdom is a matter of “when, not if”.

Mr Rowley said: ‘But for me our greatest advantage is the cooperation between the public and the police.

“It has often been said that “communities defeat terrorism” and now that’s more important than ever before”, he says.

He wrote: “The true scale of that collaboration is impressive, but rarely explained”.

“However, with the enduring severity of the threat, we need even more public assistance to help keep us all safe”.

“But for me our greatest advantage is the cooperation between the public and the police”, he said.

This included an average of 32 calls a day to the confidential anti-terrorist hotline to pass on information about suspicious activity as well as referrals about potential radicalisation or extremist material on the internet.

Other examples of the “collective effort” referred to by Scotland Yard include people visiting police and government websites for advice on how to protect homes and businesses or stay safe in the event of an attack.

Mr Rowley said his officers were arresting 330 people each year in relation to terrorist offences and were always working on at least one live plot.

Earlier Sir Bernard said that he could not promise an attack will not take place.

‘I am afraid I can not do that entirely.

The official threat level for worldwide terrorism in the United Kingdom now stands at severe, which means that an attack is highly likely.

“You see other attacks such as those in Paris last November or Brussels in the airport in February where they are much more sophisticated and determined”.

Mr Rowley said that the “tempo” of attacks had increased and in the last 18 months officers had stopped seven late-stage plots to attack the UK.