ACT police enacted a 'lone wolf' terrorist attack before the Lindt cafe siege

Police used a major Canberra shopping centre after hours to enact the scenario at the end of last year - weeks before the Sydney siege.

This week Chief Police Officer Rudi Lammers said the training for officers of all ranks was part of a series of regular scenarios being run to test what police perceived to be most immediate threats.

The Lindt cafe stand-off, as well as deadly attacks in Denmark, France and Canada in recent months, have sent police forces across the world scrambling to equip their front-line officers with adequate weapons and negotiation training.

"We're conscious that a terrorist attack could manifest itself in a number of different ways," Assistant Commissioner Lammers said.

"One could be an explosion of some sort, others could be a shooting of some sort and others, as we've seen in Melbourne, could simply be knife attacks.

"So we're preparing as best we can for a whole range of scenarios."

"The scenario we ran last year was based on a single shooter - so a lone wolf - in a busy shopping centre, and it tested all of our resources and response," Assistant Commissioner Lammers said.

Police would not comment on the finer details of the scenario for security reasons.

"I'm able to say that I was very satisfied with our level of skill and capability here in the ACT to respond to a range of terrorist incidents, be they of an explosive nature, or of a lone wolf-type attack, or either a firearm or knife.

"Having said that, we need to be vigilant, we need to keep training and we will continue to keep training."

The Australian Federal Police raised the terrorist threat level against police to "high", in line with national alert levels in mid-January.

Terrorism and radicalisation expert Dr Clarke Jones, a visiting fellow at the Australian National University, said that though Canberra wasn't considered a high-risk location, its position as the seat of government could increase the chances of a terrorist attack.

Dr Jones said it was important police training focused on officers' skills "at the pointy end" as well as improved marksmanship and negotiation skills.

"There's a need for the police force to react quickly, and if there's a hostage situation or if someone is wielding a knife or gun, front-line police are the ones who are going to have to talk someone down or negotiate fairly aggressively.

"Police are in this difficult situation - if they don't shoot or take this person out, there's a risk an innocent person will be hurt or killed."

But Australia also needed to do more to work on the root cause of home-grown extremism, by improving social harmony through community engagement.

Last week the NSW Police Association called for all that state's police officers to be trained to take down active shooter terrorists, and for all police cars to be equipped with long-arm firearms.

The police union's pre-election submission exposed weaknesses in the force's ability to deal with "lone wolf" terror attacks, including shortfalls in staff, poor training and inadequate tactics.