Reposted from EMR-ISAC

Last month, the U.S. Secret Service’s (USSS’) National Threat Assessment Center released a guide designed to help state and local law enforcement develop programs to prevent targeted violence in the United States.

The guide, Behavioral Threat Assessment Units: A Guide for State and Local Law Enforcement to Prevent Targeted Violence, outlines how state and local law enforcement agencies can develop behavioral threat assessment units (BTAUs). These units are specifically designed to identify, assess, and intervene with individuals identified as posing a risk of violence. The ultimate goal of behavioral threat assessment units should be prevention. A structured behavioral threat assessment process can empower agencies, within all existing legal and constitutional parameters, to prevent future tragedies and loss of life.

The guide lists six steps for creating and operating a BTAU. The steps in the guide describe how agencies can adopt the principles of the Secret Service model to proactively identify and intervene with those who intend to carry out acts of targeted violence in their communities. These steps are not intended to be prescriptive but rather offer a scalable blueprint that can be implemented by agencies varying in size, structure, and resources.

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