Muslim families are begging anti-terror police to arrest their sons and prevent them from joining jihadists in Syria, says top Scotland Yard officer

London force reveals large rise in arrests of world-be jihadists in 2014

Focus on more 'sensitive' and 'less macho' approach to anti-terrorism

Assistant Commissioner reveals better public and police co-operation



Changes: Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick said that anti-terrorist policing was seen a decade ago as 'the macho end of a macho organisation'

Muslim families in Britain are reporting their sons and brothers to police if they fear they will leave to fight in Syria, it was revealed today.

Scotland Yard has announced a large increase in arrests of world-be jihadists this year as it embarks on a more ‘sensitive’ and ‘less macho’ approach to fighting terrorism.

The London force says families, officers and community leaders are working better together – and this is being partly put down to an all-female leadership in Britain’s anti-terrorist police team.



More Syria-related arrests have happened since the start of 2014 than in all 2013, which police say is down to parents who would rather their sons were arrested in Britain than killed fighting.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick told The Times: ‘We’re getting lots of support from families who are ringing up and saying they are worried about their brother, son, sister sometimes, friend or indeed from other sources of information and intelligence.



'We [have] certainly got a lot more information and a lot more concerned people.



'We want to increase the proportion of people that would contact us, but we are getting a lot of calls for help.’

Miss Dick - Britain’s most senior woman officer - has two female deputies in Helen Ball, national co-ordinator of anti-terror investigations and Patricia Gallan, head of security and protection.



Devastation: A man walks through a destroyed residential area of the Saraqib, south-west of Aleppo, Syria Destructiuon: Syrians search for survivors amidst the rubble after an airstrike in Shaar, Aleppo, last December Smoke rises: Damaged buildings next to a mosque on the right in the besieged area of Homs, Syria, on Sunday

She added that anti-terrorist policing was seen a decade ago as ‘the macho end of a macho organisation’, but there is now more focus on being ‘in tune with the communities we’re serving’.

While terror arrests are rising, there has been a sharp fall in stop-and-searches for counter-terrorism purposes - and there are now fewer major armed operations, reported The Times.

These include the botched fatal shooting of Brazilian man Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Underground station in South London in 2005 - which was overseen by 53-year-old Miss Dick.

'We have certainly got a lot more information and a lot more concerned people' Cressida Dick, Metropolitan Police

Now, UK officials fear that Britons who have fought with militants in Syria will return more radicalised, with both new paramilitary skills and with direct contacts to Al Qaeda or its affiliates.

US and UK officials say hundreds of British citizens have travelled to Syria to join anti-government rebels - and as many as 100 Britons are in Syria fighting with militants at any time.