Development
After the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, many police agencies worldwide began to seriously consider the possibility of suicide attacks in their own home countries and cities. A Metropolitan Police team led by Barbara Wilding, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations, visited Israel, Sri Lanka and Russia, to learn from their experience of suicide attacks. They also consulted with UK government scientists.
Key findings were:
- The explosives used by suicide bombers were very sensitive, and were likely to be detonated by the conventional tactic of firing at the chest, as well as by less-lethal weapons.
- Suicide bombers were likely to detonate their devices on realising that they had been identified. Police must act covertly, and tactics must ensure immediate incapacitation to give the bomber no opportunity to detonate the bomb.
New tactics were developed in the first half of 2002 by Wilding and Sir David Veness, Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations. These were designated Operation Kratos, named after the Greek demi-god Kratos (Ancient Greek: κράτος "strength or power"). Work on the policy was taken over by the Terrorism and Allied Matters Committee of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) in January 2003. A paper entitled Operation Kratos People was circulated among UK police forces, and Operation Kratos became national policy.
Read more about this topic: Operation Kratos
Famous quotes containing the word development:
“John B. Watson, the most influential child-rearing expert [of the 1920s], warned that doting mothers could retard the development of children,... Demonstrations of affection were therefore limited. “If you must, kiss them once on the forehead when they say goodnight. Shake hands with them in the morning.””
—Sylvia Ann Hewitt (20th century)
“America is a country that seems forever to be toddler or teenager, at those two stages of human development characterized by conflict between autonomy and security.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“The Cairo conference ... is about a complicated web of education and employment, consumption and poverty, development and health care. It is also about whether governments will follow where women have so clearly led them, toward safe, simple and reliable choices in family planning. While Cairo crackles with conflict, in the homes of the world the orthodoxies have been duly heard, and roundly ignored.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)