Example BTAU programs

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (NCSBI), for example, chose to establish its Behavioral Threat Assessment Unit, known as the BeTA Unit, as a part of the North Carolina Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAAC) with the goal of taking a proactive approach to violence prevention.

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).

Other examples include the Hawai’i State Fusion Center (HSFC), which supports Threat Team Hawai’i (TTH), a multidisciplinary team that identifies, assesses, and manages situations where the risk of targeted violence is imminent and/or anticipated.

Similarly, in the nation’s capital, the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) established a behavioral threat assessment and management program as a part of the DC Fusion Center.

For example, in July of 1990, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) established the Threat Management Unit (TMU) due to a disturbing increase in obsessive, fixated, and sometimes violent behavior directed at high-profile public figures.

The TMU was initially created to facilitate direct reporting of and a timely response to the stalking behaviors of those who persistently attempted to contact area celebrities.

The LAPD determined there was a need to develop a specialized unit capable of providing nontraditional law enforcement services to intervene and manage individuals of concern before the potential for violence escalated further.

Today, the TMU is responsible for investigating and providing early intervention for aggravated stalking cases, criminal threat cases directed at elected city officials, and workplace violence cases involving city employees and departments, with the overall aim of managing cases before violence occurs.

The TMU also staffs the Los Angeles City Threat Assessment Team and liaises to maintain relationships with entertainment studios, the Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the California Highway Patrol’s Dignitary Protection Unit, and other similar units.

As another example, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) in Florida established its Threat Management Division in 2021.

The Threat Management Division’s mission is to identify indicators of potential targeted violence as early as possible and to act before they become actual threats or result in violence.

In addition to its specific threat management functions, the 71-member division also houses the agency’s mental health unit, mass casualty planning unit, and intelligence lead policing section.

These units work in concert to prevent targeted violence by identifying, assessing, and managing individuals who have exhibited concerning behavior; providing field-based mental health services; assessing site safety at schools and other critical infrastructure; and conducting active assailant response training.

Public schools in Florida are mandated by law to have threat management programs, but PCSO also operates a dedicated school-based threat management program for private schools throughout Pinellas County.

PCSO has partnered with several multidisciplinary community entities, including community mental health providers, school district representatives, the local prosecutor’s office, and the state probation office, all of whom meet weekly to support open threat management cases.

For example, the Rochester Threat Advisory Committee (ROCTAC) is a behavioral threat assessment advisory team created to facilitate information sharing and coordinate threat management around Rochester, NY.

Participating agencies include federal, state, and local law enforcement and other government agencies, along with universities, K–12 schools, mental health professionals, houses of worship, corporations, and community outreach partners.

The advisory team meets regularly, and any participating member agency can present a case to the team. While all responsibilities associated with the case remain with the presenting agency, other agencies in the advisory group can make recommendations about possible intervention options and share resources when appropriate.

For example, at the time of this writing, the LAPD TMU was staffed with five case-carrying detectives and one officer-in-charge, an expansion from the TMU’s original structure of three detectives and one supervisor.

For example, at the time of this writing, the NCSBI BeTA Unit is staffed by eight law enforcement personnel (one assistant special agent in charge and seven special agents) one intelligence analyst, two psychologists, and one social worker.

For example, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) Threat Management Division has identified criteria for internal law enforcement reports to be automatically routed for review by PCSO analysts for possible threat management follow-up. These criteria include: • evidence of targeted/planned violence toward people or property; • direct or indirect threats of violence; • physical or verbal intimidation (e.g., bullying); • contextually inappropriate comments about harming others; • stalking; • arson; • animal cruelty; • fixation on mass murder, weapons, or violence; • fixation on hate groups, terrorist activity, or extremist material; • suicidal statements with an articulated plan and threats to others; • statements regarding revenge for perceived injury or grievance; • statements regarding a quest for justice; • statements regarding a desire for notoriety; and • statements regarding a desire to solve an unsolvable problem.

For example, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) Threat Management Division conducts weekly meetings with outside agencies and organizations who have a role in their threat management process.

Weekly meetings are attended by representatives from groups including: • State Attorney’s Office (for adults), • State Attorney’s Office (for juveniles), • Mental Health Unit (law enforcement), • Crisis Response Specialist (mental health practitioner) , • Habitual Offender Monitoring Enforcement (HOME),