The two things – counter-terrorism preparedness and police spending – have sometimes become conflated.
Up and down the Eastern Seaboard on Tuesday, mayors, police chiefs and emergency preparedness personnel took no chances because the path of the hurricane could suddenly change.
The stock line is that the country is again bursting at the seams, and is so hopelessly racially polarized that it will take nothing less than a full blown crackdown and even bigger top heavy spending on weaponry and military preparedness by police to deal with the supposed anarchy in the streets.
Police said they had increased their preparedness "to an exceptional level" in Helsinki for New Year's Eve after being tipped off about possible problems.
They also mobilized anti-viral stockpiles where available, enhanced infection control procedures in hospitals and clinics and coordinated their response with other sectors: education, disaster preparedness and emergency response, police and military (Wilfrido Clará, personal communication, 12/03/13).
Buttress was also praised for his work managing a high-profile programme of projects delivering the police's chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear preparedness across the UK.
As part of the DRU project "Risk Attribution in Space" (Lorenz et al. 2014), participants (nonprofessionals of the general public and professionals in emergency preparedness and response, such as police, fire department, civil protection, and welfare workers, N = 15) were provided with digital cameras with integrated GPS units.
Most thought there was likely to be a repeat of the riots and raised concerns about their preparedness after real-term cuts to police budgets of 20%.
It would be necessary to "wait and see" whether the cuts in police budgets would have a knock-on impact on preparedness for dealing with public disorder, but he was particularly concerned over operational support for police, which includes training and which is being more severely cut than frontline services.
Although the exercises are considered essential for emergency preparedness, research on full-scale exercises between police, rescue services, and ambulance has been relatively limited (Perry 2004; Rykkja 2010).
