How officers secretly keep track of potential murderers
EVERY day in cities around the UK, elite MI5 and police surveillance teams, often with armed back-up, are tailing hate-filled targets who are regarded as potential killers.
Security officers working in the shadows risk being rumbled, lured into a trap and subjected to a terrible death.
And the increasingly paranoid people being tailed can suddenly launch bloodthirsty attacks – just like Sudesh Amman did in Streatham on Sunday.
A source said: “The surveillance team couldn’t pounce on him based on a suspicion of his intentions.
“So they put a 24-hour watch on him to try to contain him. Thankfully, as soon as he escalated, they were able to neutralise the threat very quickly.
“Although it is worrying that he nearly achieved his aims of murdering someone before being killed himself.” the shooting, undercover police quickly put on police caps, balaclavas and scarves to keep their identities hidden while also letting the public and colleagues know they were officers.
The armed officers wielded highpowered Glock pistols, drawn from covert holsters or military-style shoulder bags often used in counter-terror operations for ease of access.
Some shadow team members had bags containing medical kits, radios and extra magazines for pistols in case of a protracted shootout.
Surveillance teams had vehicles at their disposal such as cars and even a motorbike for getting through innercity traffic in an emergency.
These deadly games of cat and mouse have been played across the UK in hundreds of nerve-shredding operations since 9/11. Every so often officers spring into action, seizing attackers moments before they can kill or disrupting the plot, then disappearing back into the shadows. The officers in Streatham snuffed out the danger in a few seconds of terrifying drama as Amman came close to taking lives.
Hundreds of manhours spent following one terrorist paid off, but that is against a backdrop of thousands more that came to nothing.
This task, which costs millions of pounds every month, is vital to keeping people safe. The police team tailing Amman had been given armed back-up after his behaviour became increasingly worrying.
Sources say the operation was escaAfter
INSIDER ON HOW DIFFICULT TAILING SUSPECTS CAN BE
Someone like Amman will be extremely paranoid about being followed