For the state's 13,000 police have been officially told that anyone of them at any time, on duty or off, are now terrorist targets.

This will inevitably increase the us against them mentality, although no one really knows who "they" are.

Police are not to work alone in a station unless given special permission, solo patrols are banned, motorbike units will work in pairs, front-counter police will be armed and not work one-up, and uniform police must wear ballistic vests.

This will threaten the viability of some country stations, cut road policing, reduce suburban patrols, blow out response times and cut back some station hours.

Such is the level of the threat of random attacks by young Australians seduced by the bilge pumped out by Islamic State websites and local ratbag religious revolutionaries that police will have to sacrifice service for survival.

The new $230 million, 12-storey police complex in Spencer Street opened last week and will house 1500 staff. Without giving details away it has been fortified to be terrorist resistant. But there are 350 police stations in Victoria, all built when terrorism was someone else's problem.

And in the federal budget an extra $1.2billion was allocated to fight global terrorism including $450 million for improved intelligence – money diverted from other projects.

The present threat is well-documented. A lone wolf or small cell of wannabes that can be radicalised in days and be ready to attack almost as quickly.

Think of it as like any other internet scam. The initiators send out countless messages in the hope of trapping a few gullible souls.

The latest example is a teenager from the northern suburbs who allegedly planned to use three pipe bombs on Mother's Day.

According to police he was a quiet, studious boy who dropped out of school to be sucked in by internet ideological doggerel.

And on the issue of pipe bombs. Police are finding about three a week, built by kids, crooks and the mentally unstable.

For the intelligence services this is an exercise in herding cats. If the attackers have any level of sophistication they will communicate with each other and try to acquire serious weaponry, giving law enforcement an opportunity to intercept.

But the unorganised are so much harder to monitor.

Abdul Numan Haider, 18, was angry, impressionable and available. He was monitored by intelligence agencies (how much has not been revealed) and judged not to be an immediate threat.

On September 23 last year he went to an arranged meeting with an Australian Federal Police officer and a Victoria Police member in the Endeavour Hills police station car park.

He is believed to have tried to lure them to a local park but the police declined.

Armed with two bladed weapons and hiding an ISIS-inspired flag he stabbed both police repeatedly, and despite some public denials hopped on the federal officer's chest with the apparent intention of beheading him.

So determined was Haider to complete his self-imposed mission that even when the Victorian policeman screamed at him to drop his weapons he continued to attack until he was shot dead at point-blank range.

His plan, police believe, was to kill the officers and drape their bodies in the flag, posting his trophy pictures online.

Three teenagers said to be associates of Haider were charged last month over an alleged plot to run down and behead a policeman on Anzac Day. A 14-year-old boy in Britain has been arrested as part of the same operation.

Police say such alleged plans follow the blueprint used in the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby, killed outside London Royal Artillery Barracks in May 2013.

Remember the ill-informed outrage in 2008 when police in a Northcote skate park were forced to fatally shoot Tyler Cassidy, a knife-wielding 15-year-old?

Now no one with a brain doubts that disturbed teenagers can be every bit as dangerous as people of voting age.

The recent northern suburbs operation is a sign of shifting tactics. From tip-off to arrest took just nine days and – if the allegations yet to be tested in a court are correct – two days before a planned bombing.

Police can no longer afford to quietly build a brief of evidence before making arrests because the stakes are too high.

As Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Mike Phelan said: "The No. 1 priority is always community safety so if it means we have to act early to save people's lives that's indeed what we are going to do."

Clearly this is the right policy but there will be consequences. Raids will be conducted in cases where there will be insufficient evidence to lay charges.

Disruption, not conviction is the name of the game but this will lead to resentment and claims of victimisation.

Just for a moment think that you are a young Muslim man on the streets of Melbourne. If police stop you, would you wonder if they think you are a terrorist? Will the officer suspect you might be carrying a knife because of the way you look?

So what can we do?

Don't go nuts. If we give into fear or stereotype on looks, race or religion then we are promoting  the Islamic State idea of some mythical divide.

The enemy is not a religion or even an ideology but those who think their truth is so unique all dissenting voices should be exterminated. So shut up and listen.

The two worst acts of terrorism against Victoria Police were committed by committed crooks with no political agenda. They were motivated by Profit, not The Prophet.

In March 1986 a group of armed robbers detonated a car bomb outside the Russell Street Police Complex, killing Constable Angela Taylor and wounding another 21 people. While they were motivated by hatred it is also believed they wanted to divert police resources from their armed robberies.

On October 12, 1988 a group of armed robbers planted a stolen car in Walsh Street, South Yarra to lure police to an ambush. When Constables Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre arrived they were shot dead.

So why would anyone be attracted to a suicide mission? One element is the cult of fame. The fool who held 18 people hostage in Sydney's Lindt Cafe had for years wanted to be taken seriously by the media. His wish was granted – posthumously.

Three people, including the offender, were shot dead in the siege. This has led to a shift in thinking at a top level.

For the past 30 years police have worked on the belief the longer a hostage incident goes the more likely it is to be resolved peacefully.

But when offenders declare they are supporting a terror cause they usually only drag out the event  for maximum publicity. So many counter-terrorism police want a harder edge, where they are given more latitude to use deadly force.

We live in an era where everyone seems to want to be famous. What sort of terrorist who claims to hate Western culture posts pictures of themselves on Facebook?

It is the deadly side of the look-at-me culture. Kill as many people as you can and die in the process and you will be the centre of attention.

What rot.

The trouble is every time police foil a plot and it makes headlines, some other young man will blame his own inadequacies on "The System".

The media rightly hates censorship and sees it as the enemy of democracy. But perhaps by profiling these whackos we are playing into their hands.

Convicted terrorists should lose their identity and be given just a prison number for they are meatballs, not martyrs.

And on a lighter note...

We are told in the modern age of social media that journalists should engage with the audience and welcome comments via Twitter, Facebook and email.

And certainly this column often receives news tips, advice and occasionally constructive criticism from the well meaning to the demeaning. Here is an example:

Hi John,

I love reading your articles, which are clearly well-researched, however I have immense issues with your photo. Surely, you cannot be that grim and ugly??? How about a decent photo… one which reassures everyone that you are very definitely not that angry and ugly??? Small ask!!! It is off-putting to read your articles when confronted with your ugly mug shot.

Best,

Janine.

Hi Janine,

Sadly there was more Vaseline on the photographer's lens than on Henry Cooper's eyebrows when he fought Muhammad Ali in 1963.

I find your views on the picture byline quite surprising. In my view it is a fine likeness taken by an award-winning photographer not long out of detox.

Indeed I have had underwear sent to me by fans (sadly men's, extra extra large).

Quite recently another female reader remarked the head shot comforted her in darker moments as it projected a "strange and disturbing sensuality".

I understand her subsequent cataract operations were a complete success.