Police cannot take prime responsibility for preventing young people travelling to Syria

The National Police Lead for the Prevent Programme, Sir Peter Fahy said:

"The police cannot be in every mosque, college or other community venue monitoring what is discussed and the doctrines which are promoted. Nor would we want Britain to be such a society. Instead, this has to be the responsibility of faith and community leaders, public sector professionals and indeed the whole community. There are difficult judgements around when extreme interpretations of religious doctrine become violent extremism and when they breach the criminal law. We also need to be clear that the police or other agencies do not have powers to prevent people travelling abroad, to Syria or elsewhere, unless there are grounds to make an arrest. We have to use the power of persuasion involving a range of agencies when we believe people are vulnerable to extremist ideology.

“We can understand the grief and worry of parents whose sons have appeared in videos from Syria and the trauma they are going through. But the prime responsibility for influencing the actions of young people has to be their families and this responsibility cannot be transferred to the police or indeed any other agency. In particular, if families believe their sons or daughters have gone missing and may be abroad or thinking of going abroad, they should tell the police. But they should also look out for the signs at an early stage, especially when people suddenly become more interested in politics or more extremist religious ideologies or are mixing with what they see as the wrong crowd.”

For more information please contact:

ACPO Press Office
Association of Chief Police Officers
e: press.office@acpo.pnn.police.uk