Counter Terrorism Command

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Counter Terrorism Command was established as a result of a merge of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch (SO12) and the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch (SO13)to form a single Counter Terrorism Unit It brought together the intelligence gathering capability and the investigative arm, in order to combat the very serious nature of the terrorist threat in the UK. The Command's official police designation is SO15. The new Unit has over 1,500 Police Officers and staff, and a number of investigators based overseas. It is run by Deputy Assistant Commisioner Peter Clarke.

[edit] Responsibilities

The responsibilities of the CTC are ^[1]:

To bring to justice those engaged in terrorist, domestic extremist and related offences
To provide a proactive and reactive response to terrorist, domestic extremist and related offences, including the prevention and disruption of terrorist activity
Support the National Co-ordinator of Terrorist Investigations outside London
To gather and exploit intelligence on terrorism and extremism in London
To assess, analyse and develop intelligence to drive operational activity
To engage in partnership with London’s communities in order to understand their concerns and to provide reassurance and support where needed
To provide specialist security advice and services internally and externally
To provide an explosive ordnance disposal and CBRN capability in London
To assist the British Security Service and Secret Intelligence Service in fulfilling their statutory roles
To be the police single point of contact for international partners in counter-terrorism matters
Assisting in the protection of British interests overseas and the investigation of attacks against those interests