Recently, the UK’s national terrorist threat level was quietly escalated to “SEVERE,” meaning an attack is considered highly likely. For the police, this often translates into expanded powers and heightened visibility. If you spend any time on social media, you’ve likely seen the daily clips of independent auditors and ordinary citizens being stopped, questioned, and searched under the Terrorism Act. These encounters frequently highlight a glaring abuse of police power, where legislation designed to thwart mass casualty events is weaponised against people simply holding cameras in public.
But when we step back from the political rhetoric and look at the actual statistics, a much more uncomfortable truth emerges. It is a story of disproportionate power and misplaced focus, exactly the kind of reality that rarely makes the mainstream headlines.
The Numbers They Don’t Broadcast
When you compare the fatalities resulting from terrorism on British soil against the number of people dying while in the custody of the very system meant to protect us, the disparity is stark.
| Cause of Death | Fatalities (Last 20+ Years) | Annual Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Terrorism in the UK | ~100 (Since 2001) | Variable |
| Police Custody | ~400 (Since 2004) | Consistently averaging 19/year |
Since 2001, there have been around 100 deaths from terrorism in Britain. Every single one of those lives lost is a tragedy that rightfully commands national mourning and massive security overhauls.
However, since records began in 2004/05, the UK has averaged 19 deaths in police custody every single year. In the 2023/24 period alone, that number climbed to a concerning 24. This means that over the last two decades, nearly four times as many people have died in police custody as have been killed in terrorist attacks.
It’s also very important to point out that this DOES NOT include deaths caused by police shootings, road traffic accidents and other unexplained deaths including murder. Add in these factors and the number of deaths caused by police increases substantially.
The Illusion of Security
The disconnect between perceived threat and actual harm is widened by how police utilise their counter-terrorism powers. Between 2009 and 2025, the Metropolitan Police carried out over 9,200 stop and searches under Section 43 of the Terrorism Act. The arrest rate? A dismal 7%. And it’s estimated that good number of these were ulawful arrests.
This means more than 93% of the time, this severe power is used on individuals who have committed no terror-related offense. We see this manifest daily in viral videos of auditors being detained simply for exercising their legal right to film. The Terrorism Act has become a convenient catch-all to demand compliance, intimidate the public, and bypass the standard need for reasonable suspicion.
Where is the Accountability?
When a terrorist attack occurs, there are public inquiries, sweeping legislative changes, and millions injected into intelligence and security forces. Yet, when dozens of citizens die in police custody year after year, it is often treated as an administrative inevitability. Many of these individuals are highly vulnerable, suffering from mental health crises or addiction, and they are met with a system ill-equipped to preserve their lives.
If the goal of the state is truly to protect the public from the most statistically likely threats to their lives, it is time we start pointing the camera back at the authorities. True independent reporting demands we ask why the state requires sweeping powers to protect us from a threat that, statistically, takes fewer lives than the system enforcing those very powers.
The big question is; who are the terrorists? If we are to consider statistics; surprisingly the real terrorists are the police.
