Radicalization to Terrorism: What to do? Reach Out Early
Talking with Rob Out
Community policing can do a lot to protect the vulnerable against radicalization and violent extremism that lead to terrorism (VERLT), but it cannot work alone, explains Rob Out. An expert consultant for the OSCE and an officer of the Netherlands police force, he helped to develop the Community Policing Preventing Radicalization and Terrorism (CoPPRa) programme used by police forces throughout the European Union for detecting of signs of violent radicalization at an early stage. He is a member of the European Union’s Radicalization Awareness Network (RAN POL) and an expert/trainer for the Centre of Excellence of the RAN.
Please tell us about your community policing work to prevent terrorism.
I’m currently a project manager for countering terrorism, violent extremism and radicalization in the national Netherlands police department of North Holland. My responsibility there is two-fold: firstly, to develop and implement our multi-agency approach to violent radicalization and, secondly, to raise awareness based on the CoPPRa programme. I worked on this EU project for two years in Belgium – the project leader was from the Belgian federal police. It was a very successful project. We developed a comprehensive train-the-trainer programme, offered to more than 150 participants all over Europe, and a pocket guide for first line police officers to help them detect signs of violent radicalization at an early stage – tell-tale behavior like changing names, clothing styles or peers. Community police officers are engaged within local communities, so they are among the first to notice such signs. The earlier we can identify them, the better we can prevent terrorist radicalization. That’s my core business.
What in your experience draws people to engage in terrorist activities?
There is a great variety of possible reasons and it is always a composition of more than one factor. One of them is that youngsters in their adolescent period are looking for their identity, looking for their purpose in life and sometimes struggling with all the complex problems in the world. They don’t want to repeat what their parents have done; they want to go their own way. They are in a period of life in which they are most vulnerable, 12 to 20 years old. And if someone has come up with a very simple solution for all these problems, then that can appear very attractive. This could be one of the reasons why young people are so receptive to the rhetoric from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and similar groups, but also from violent right-wing or left-wing organizations.
Looking at people who want to leave for Syria, who want to help ISIL or their brothers fighting there, we have to realize there are also victims among them. Of course, some people really want to go fight and kill those they consider to be unbelievers. But among them are also people who have hardly any knowledge of the Koran, who are more or less lured into going there, especially young women. I remember a girl – she was 16 or 17 – who, in her mind, wanted to go to “the Caliphate” to help “the fighters” over there, get married to “a warrior” and have children. But just before she left for Syria, we were able to stop her, and when we opened her suitcase, we found a bikini. That shows that she really had no clue as to what she would have been confronted with over there.
Does the police need to work together with other sectors of society?
Violent radicalization is not only a police issue. If you are a policeman or policewoman and you detect signs of radicalization at an early stage, there may be little you can do. The person in question might not have broken any law. You have to be very careful because of fundamental rights. After all, having radical thoughts is not forbidden in the Netherlands. If we didn’t have people with radical thoughts in our history, we wouldn’t have achieved the progress that took us where we are now. We have to be very careful with that. A teacher, for instance, unlike a police officer, has contact with pupils every day and may be in a much better position to identify and maybe even constructively react to changes in vulnerable youngsters.
That’s why in the Netherlands we are taking an inter-agency approach to preventing violent radicalization. When I brought the CoPPRa programme to the Netherlands and translated it into Dutch, I adapted it so that it could be used not only for police officers but also for other first line workers. We will be offering this training to first line professionals working in the municipalities, prisons and schools. They will be given information that helps them understand the process of violent radicalization, what the signs may be, what is common among violent extremist groups irrespective of their particular ideological brand, and where to go when they encounter these signs.
Is it hard for different agencies to work together?
It is not always easy, not because they are not willing, but because of the differences in structure, ‘language’, goals and agendas. If I’m part of the police force, my objective is for people not to commit terrorist attacks in the future, but if I’m a teacher, my goal is for people to be able to finish their studies. If I’m a mental health worker, my objective is to cure mental illnesses. We don't all have the same starting position. Nor do those involved always have the same authority within their own organizations to put initiative into action.
One of the most important aspects is information sharing. Police cannot share police information with everybody, and people who work in mental health cannot share all information about their patients. In the Netherlands we have set up an information house, or safety house, where we have a written legal agreement signed by each agency that allows us to exchange information case by case on people about whom we are concerned.
The Matrix integrated approach is a tool developed in the Netherlands to help practitioners on an operational level to deal with these difficulties. More information on this good practice can be found in the OSCE guide Preventing Terrorism and Countering Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism: A Community-Policing Approach.
What role do social media play in terrorist radicalization and for preventing it?
Within the RAN we have nine working groups, and one of them is the RAN Communication and Narratives working group. Practitioners from different EU countries (governments and NGO’s) together with representatives from Google and YouTube for instance do what they can to prevent messages from terrorist groups from being posted on the Internet. The Netherlands police and police in many other countries are doing the same. As soon as they know of an Al-Qaeda-inspired or ISIL-inspired website or Twitter account, they try to get it off the Internet. Usually, however, a new account is quickly created, which makes it a bit difficult. But I think we are having some success. My impression is that for the past few months we have been seeing fewer messages from those accounts. Foreign terrorist fighters in Syria use Twitter accounts to encourage their friends back home to come join them. But they know that the authorities are also reading their Twitter feeds and that if they return to their home country, they will be arrested. So, I think that in the last few months, they have been using those strategies less than they used to a year ago. It is more underground now and restricted to closed groups that you can only join by invitation, for instance whatsapp groups.
Another activity we are doing on a European and global scale is to spread counter-narratives. You can find some videos on YouTube in which we explain why you shouldn’t join ISIL and why the members of ISIL are misinterpreting and wilfully exploiting the Koran to further their agenda.
In Estonia and in Finland, community policing officers have a Facebook page on which they talk to youngsters about subjects like violent radicalization and terrorism. In the Netherlands community policing officers have their own Twitter account for two-way communication with their communities.
What can be done once a person has been radicalized to violence?
For someone who is too far radicalized it is almost impossible to be de-radicalized. The experience all over Europe is that de-radicalization is maybe too ambitious. We now use the word disengagement. People might keep their extremist ideas, but will not be in favour (anymore) of the use of violence to achieve them. To connect and try to talk to people is the best thing that we can achieve. We are trying to engage people, but not by going to them and saying “we heard that you have radical thoughts, sit down and let’s talk”. We try to find another entry point, get in touch with the person for other reasons. Maybe he or she has social problems; maybe a mental illness, such as depression, trauma, or impulse control problems. Helping them with these problems might already do the trick. That’s the great advantage of having a multi-agency approach, because you assemble all kinds of parties who can help people who are at school, using social services or on probation. We see who is best at establishing contact with the person to determine in which way he or she can be best engaged and helped. A good practice in this respect is the use of specially chosen and trained mentors, as is being done with success in Aarhus, Denmark, and also in Amsterdam. Other good examples are the EXIT programme in Germany, which was developed to de-radicalize right-wing extremists and has been adapted to other forms of violent extremism, and the initiative Sisters Against Violent Extremism (SAVE) in Vienna, Austria, in which women, in particular mothers, use their influence to prevent youngsters from succumbing to terrorist radicalization.
We cannot reach everybody. If people are too far radicalized, then maybe they have already conducted activities that are against the law. In such cases, we get our law enforcement system to take matters over and to conduct surveillance, start investigations, or other activities. That is not my job, as it already lies outside of the preventive approach.
Read more
Information on the OSCE guidebook Preventing Terrorism and Countering Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism: A CommunityPolicing Approach can be found at: www.osce.org/secretariat/116516
EXIT – Germany: www.exit-deutschland.de/english/
SAVE – Sister Against Violent Extremism: www.women-without-borders.org/save
Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN): www.ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/networks/radicalisation_awa...
Contact Rob Out: mail.robout@gmail.com