Evidence claims

Through the Presidential Threat Protection Act of 2000, Congress formally authorized NTAC to conduct research on threat assessment and various types of targeted violence; provide training on threat assessment and the prevention of targeted violence; facilitate information-sharing among agencies with protective and/or public safety responsibilities; provide case consultation on individual threat assessment investigations and for agencies building threat assessment units; and develop programs to promote the standardization of federal, state, and local threat assessment processes and investigations.

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.

Mass Attacks in Public Spaces: 2016 - 2020 (January 2023) analyzes 173 attacks that occurred from 2016 to 2020 in public or semi-public locations in the U.S.

Hot Yoga Tallahassee: A Case Study of Misogynistic Extremism (March 2022) examines the background of an attacker who killed two women and injured four others in 2018.

Averting Targeted School Violence: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Plots Against Schools (March 2021) examines 67 averted attacks at K–12 schools from 2006 to 2018 planned by current or recently former students.

Protecting America’s Schools: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence (November 2019) examines 41 attacks perpetrated by current or recently former students at K–12 schools from 2008 to 2017.

Enhancing School Safety Using a Threat Assessment Model: An Operational Guide for Preventing Targeted School Violence (July 2018) provides actionable steps for schools to develop multidisciplinary violence prevention programs that proactively identify and assist students who may pose a risk of harm to themselves or others.

Attacks on Federal Government: 2001 - 2013 (December 2015) analyzes 43 attacks directed toward federal government facilities and officials from 2001 to 2013.

Campus Attacks: Targeted Violence Affecting Institutions of Higher Education (April 2010) examines 272 incidents of violence that impacted institutions of higher education from 1900 to 2008.

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.

The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative: Implications for the Prevention of School Attacks in the United States (May 2002) analyzes incidents of targeted violence in schools and outlines how schools could adopt the threat assessment process pioneered by the Secret Service to prevent future attacks.

Protective Intelligence and Threat Assessment Investigations: A Guide for State and Local Law Enforcement Officials (July 1998) is the seminal publication in the field of threat assessment that shares findings and implications from the Secret Service’s Exceptional Case Study Project.

The process was built upon NTAC’s research which found that most individuals who engage in acts of targeted violence elicit concern in those around them prior to the attack.

As research continues to show, individuals planning acts of targeted violence almost always exhibit observable concerning behaviors, offering opportunities for intervention and redirection before criminal behavior or violence occurs.

For example, the Secret Service’s investigative and protective authority is established by Title 18, United States Code, § 3056 (Powers, Authorities, and Duties of the United States Secret Service).

One of the contributing factors to establishing the BeTA Unit in the ISAAC, a state fusion center, was the North Carolina General Assembly’s decision to provide the state fusion center with express legal authority to analyze information related to any threat of violence to an individual in a school or a place of worship (NC Gen Stat § 143B–929, 2022).

For example, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program is dedicated to enhancing the capabilities of local communities to prevent targeted violence and terrorism.

TVTP grants support the DHS approach to violence prevention, which focuses on providing local communities with evidence-based tools to prevent violence while protecting civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy rights.

The TVTP Grant Program is open to state, local, tribal, and territorial government agencies; institutions of higher education; and nonprofit organizations.

The TVTP Grant Program has named “Enhancing Local Threat Assessment and Management Capabilities” as one of its top priorities.

As an example, Secret Service policy states that the primary objective of Secret Service Protective Intelligence investigations is to gather and evaluate information about potential risks to the people, places, and events the agency protects. Secret Service policy clearly establishes that investigating violations of federal criminal statute as part of a Protective Intelligence investigation is a secondary objective.

For example, while making a direct threat against the president would initiate a behavioral threat assessment, it is not the Secret Service’s sole threshold. The Secret Service initiates a Protective Intelligence investigation when an individual displays a threatening or concerning direction of interest toward any person or place protected by the agency.

For example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects the privacy of individual health and medical information held by healthcare providers and healthcare businesses.

Similarly, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects the privacy of individual education records held by education agencies and institutions receiving funds from any program administered by the U.S. Department of Education.

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).

Secret Service research pioneered the Systems Approach to behavioral threat assessment when it published Protective Intelligence and Threat Assessment Investigations: A Guide for State and Local Law Enforcement Officials in 1998.

The guide describes how examining the “systems (family, work, community, criminal justice, mental health, and social services) that the individual is involved with are key to assessing and managing a potential threat.”

These themes have been identified by decades of Secret Service research examining targeted violence in a variety of forms, including acts of mass violence targeting public spaces in the United States. Assessment Themes are based on frequently observed or particularly noteworthy factors in the backgrounds of those who have engaged in previous acts of targeted violence.

Some of these Assessment Themes have their own body of existing research examining their impact on an individual, and prior NTAC research has found that many past attackers had experienced substantial negative experiences related to these contextual themes as well.

This distinction is based on decades of NTAC research that demonstrates that many attackers do not make explicit threats of violence prior to an attack.

Court-ordered removal: Some states have implemented extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs), also known as red flag laws, which allow for certain individuals (e.g., law enforcement or family members) to petition for the temporary confiscation of firearms from an individual of concern if the court agrees that the individual poses a risk of harm to themselves or others.

Federal law has established several longstanding prohibiting factors that make it unlawful for certain individuals to purchase or possess a firearm, including a prior felony conviction, a dishonorable discharge from the military, and being the subject of a current restraining order. Other noteworthy prohibiting factors include illegal drug use within the past year and any prior conviction for a crime of domestic violence (felony or misdemeanor).

When the Secret Service published research on averted school attack plots, the study affirmed that targeted violence is preventable when communities identify warning signs and intervene.

One example of public messaging is the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s “If You See Something, Say Something®” campaign. This is a national campaign with the mission to raise public awareness around recognizing signs of suspicious activity that may indicate a potential nexus to terrorism, as well as how to report this activity to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.

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