Community-Based Counterterrorism Policing: Recommendations for Practitioners

This article presents recommendations for practitioners of community-based counterterrorism policing. The recommendations are located and explained within two broad propositions: recognize the implications and limitations of policing by consent, and respect the legitimate religious beliefs of all communities. Highlighting tensions between high and low policing and between policing and government imperatives, the article helps illustrate how different aspects of counterterrorism policy and practice may sometimes be at odds with one another. The recommendations are aimed at recognizing and, where practicable, reconciling such tensions. They arise from the authors' engagement with the issues in London and are understood to have application in other towns and cities in the United Kingdom and the West, particularly in communities and neighborhoods where Muslim citizens are the principal recipients of this form of policing.