London Police Review Security, Search for Motive Following Attack
Britain will be reviewing the security at Parliament, according to police. The review comes after criticism that a gate for vehicles was left open for a distinct amount of time during the deadly attack last week when a man killed four people in a vehicle and knife attack.
Interior Minister Amber Rudd told BBC that there would be another review of security at the Palace of Westminster, but that usually security measures were continuously assessed to ensure the protection of the members of parliament.
For now, police are still trying to figure out what motivated, 52-year-old Khalid Masood, who was shot dead by police after driving a car through crowds on the Westminster Bridge and attacking a police officer with a knife.
Police believe that Masood used the messaging app, “WhatsApp” just two minutes before engaging in the attack. All messages sent on WhatsApp have end-to-end encryption, meaning they are unreadable if intercepted by anyone, including law enforcement.
A WhatsApp spokeswoman said that the company was “horrified at the attack” and was co-operating with the investigation.
While police know that Masood’s phone was connected to the app, they do not know what, if anything, was communicated through it.
Rudd said that police needed to check the messages in order to rule out if Masood was speaking with terrorist organizations through the app, as they have been known to do in the best.