Bystander reporting

Improving School Safety Through Bystander Reporting: A Toolkit for Strengthening K-12 Reporting Programs (May 2023) provides school staff with ways to encourage reporting by students and the broader school community.

Prior Knowledge of Potential School-Based Violence: Information Students Learn May Prevent a Targeted Attack (May 2008) explores how students with prior knowledge of attacks (i.e., bystanders) made decisions regarding what steps, if any, to take after learning the information.

In many cases, the attacker’s behavior was witnessed by community bystanders, some of whom sought to report their concerns to public safety officials.

Bystander reporting and intervention can avert planned acts of targeted violence.

Imagine a scenario in which a local law enforcement agency is notified by a concerned family member that their loved one has become increasingly angry at his former boss, who fired him after a series of disciplinary actions for safety violations. The individual of concern made comments about having nothing left to lose and claimed that his former boss was to blame for his recent divorce.

Once complete, the unit will be positioned to receive and manage information, including bystander reports about individuals displaying concerning behaviors in the community.

BTAUs must establish avenues to receive reports of concerning behavior in the community, including internal and external agency referrals and bystander reporting from the public.

Without clear channels for reporting, BTAUs may miss opportunities to identify and intervene with individuals of concern.

In this framework, the term bystander is used to describe an individual who observes threatening or concerning behavior in another person and is able to report that behavior to the appropriate public safety professionals.

Bystander reporting is a cornerstone of targeted violence prevention efforts.

BTAUs may establish a centralized reporting mechanism or utilize an existing reporting program to facilitate bystander reporting.

To improve accessibility, reporting mechanisms should provide a variety of avenues for reporting, including smartphone apps, online web portals, dedicated email addresses, and tiplines.

Programs should offer an anonymous or confidential reporting option, as research has shown that these features increase bystander reporting rates.

Additionally, reporting mechanisms should be monitored 24/7, and all reports should elicit a response.

Reporting systems must also be regularly promoted as a resource available to the public, making clear to bystanders that there is an avenue for them to report when they have concerns for the safety of themselves or others.

If reporting programs are operated by another agency, the BTAU will want to ensure clear lines of communication to ensure timely forwarding of relevant reports.

Some states and fusion centers already have established programs for statewide reporting, which may serve as a resource for BTAUs or as a model for developing new reporting programs.

For example, iWatchTexas is a public portal through which reports enter the Texas Suspicious Activity Reporting Network (TxSARNet) and the School Safety Network.

These statewide reporting networks help provide a holistic view of terrorism, crime, and school safety-related suspicious activity and concerns in the State of Texas.

Other states have bystander reporting systems designed specifically to support school safety, such as Safe2Tell Colorado.

In addition to receiving tips about potential school violence, programs like Safe2Tell also receive tips about other concerning behaviors involving students, such as bullying, drug use, depression, suicide, and self-harm, all of which have been observed as common precursors to school violence.

Improving School Safety Through Bystander Reporting: A Toolkit for Strengthening K-12 Reporting Programs is a joint publication produced by the Secret Service and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

The toolkit outlines strategies for establishing and enhancing bystander reporting programs. While this toolkit was written primarily for K-12 school audiences, the principles presented are applicable to broader, community-based reporting mechanisms.

Multiple avenues for reporting (e.g., smartphone apps, online web portals, dedicated email addresses, and tiplines) • Anonymous/confidential reporting • 24/7 monitoring • Timely response

In nearly every averted school plot examined, tragedy was prevented by members of the community coming forward when they observed behaviors that elicited concern.

Bystander reporting is paramount to the success of the BTAU and should be the focus of community outreach efforts.

Fostering a climate of trust is equally vital to bystander reporting. Research shows that trust influences a bystander’s willingness to report threats.

When the public perceives law enforcement as fair, transparent, and respectful, they are more trusting of the process and more willing to offer information that could help.