Britain's top counter-terrorism officer warned on Wednesday that the balance between defending civil liberties and national security was in danger of "getting out of kilter" and could damage efforts to stop future attacks. "One does wonder when one might have to question whether we are getting that balance right," John Yates, head of specialist operations at London's Metropolitan Police, said.
Britain has brought in a raft of security measures to tackle the threat of al Qaeda and Islamist militants since the September 11, 2001 US attacks and the London suicide bombings in 2005. However civil rights campaigners have argued that many of these were draconian and impinged on individuals' freedoms.
Yates said a growing scrutiny of police activities by groups ranging from parliamentary committees to public inquiries posed the danger of "managing the past rather than dealing with the next threat". "The scale, the frequency, the cost of meeting these bodies must not get out of kilter," he told a security conference in London.
His warning echoed comments late last year by Jonathan Evans, head of Britain's MI5 domestic spy service, who complained that an overbearing emphasis on civil rights would affect his agency's work. Evans said there had to be a balance between "onerous and detailed" scrutiny that could harm MI5's effectiveness and ensuring his officers acted appropriately.