Sixty thousand British civilians are being trained by the Home Office to spot terrorists, Gordon Brown has revealed. Huge numbers of staff on rail networks, at shops, public buildings and major sports venues have been picked out by MI5 and the police for the special training - teaching them to watch for 'suspicious behaviour' and respond swiftly to an atrocity.
The ambitious scheme was announced as the Home Secretary prepared to publish what she claimed would be the Government's most detailed counter-terrorism strategy document to date. The plans are likely to spark questions over the effectiveness of such a huge army of amateur and lightly-trained 'terrorist watchers', including concerns that they will swamp the police and security service and inflame community relations with spurious alerts singling out law-abiding British Muslims.
The Home Office would not provide any details of their training on security grounds, but said it centred on increased vigilance and improved response to terrorist attacks, including evacuation and crowd control procedures. Officials said MI5 had helped draw up the training course. Gordon Brown, writing in a Sunday newspaper said: 'Tens of thousands of men and women throughout Britain - from security guards to store managers - have now been trained and equipped to deal with an incident and know what to watch for as people go about their daily business in crowded places such as stations, airports, shopping centres and sports grounds.'
Source: Daily Mail