Security and Partnerships Officers

Terrorism can affect anyone of us at any time.

We are Sergeants Jas Baghria, Dipak Patel and PC Wahid Husman and we work as part of a group of uniformed police officers appointed to help tackle this issue by building strong links with our local communities.

We are called Security and Partnership Officers and work for the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit. Jas, Dipak and Wahid are based at Coventry Central Police Station. Colleagues doing similar jobs to ours are based all around the force area.

Counter terrorism policing has changed a great deal over recent years. We are still focussed on tracking possible terrorists and bringing them to justice, but we now also devote considerable time and resources into trying to prevent people from becoming involved in terrorism in the first place. This is the area of work – known as PREVENT - we are involved in. It is also where you can be of help.

The police service recognises that if we are to defeat terrorism, the whole community needs to play a part. But we need to build on your trust and understand and get people from all sorts of different backgrounds, with different experiences and expertise, working together.

Terrorism is no different to any other sort of violent crime and if you suspect something, you should report it. If you feel criminals may be influencing someone, you should help put a stop to it.

Vulnerable people can get drawn into criminal activity and the police, together with other agencies like the council, education authority, religious organisations etc, can help steer them away from potential criminal behaviour.

You might think this is a strange approach to take when we are considering such a serious issue, but we believe it will ultimately be effective. It has been with other areas of criminality such as knife crime, drugs, guns and gangs.

You will no doubt be familiar with the concept of neighbourhood policing. Our role works on all the same principles: trust, understand and co-operation. In order to do our job, we need to have a good picture of what’s going on in this area. People like you can help us build that.

If you have information or concerns that you would like to discuss, let us know. Don’t worry that you might be wasting police time. We would rather you contact us, and it turn out to be nothing at all, than risk missing something important.

We fully appreciate that this is a sensitive area of policing and we assure you any calls will be handled delicately and discreetly.

Prevention is our watchword. Together we can help keep our communities safe from those who wish to cause division and harm.

If you would like to get in touch, please contact us on 0345 113 5000 extension 7931 6535.

Alternatively, you can call the confidential national Anti-Terrorist Hotline on 0800 789 321. However, remember, in an emergency situation always call 999.