ABSTRACT
The role of the police officer in counter-terrorism is the prevention and deterrence of crime and the pursuit of the terrorist by detection. The primary objective of this activity is the reduction of harm to victims. The contemporary challenge for planning and developing counterterrorism initiatives is to address a range of threats that have become more diverse, more complicated and potentially more dangerous to the public in recent times. Perhaps the most troubling feature of this developing challenge is the convergence between terrorism and other serious crime. Both categories of criminals clearly pursue power or money, or both, by murderous means. Most worryingly, however, levels of impact of harm that were once the almost exclusive preserve of terrorists are now more widely accessible to all criminals.
