Report page 42

Utilizing the Systems Approach also allows BTAUs to corroborate information as it is gathered and make note of any inconsistencies or anomalies they identify.

Another benefit of the Systems Approach is that it allows BTAUs to connect pieces of information that are traditionally siloed.

Often, communities in the United States identify warning signs for acts of targeted violence after violence has already taken place.

In some cases, attackers had demonstrated concerning behavior at home, at work, in school, and online, but no program existed to examine all those behaviors together.

Additionally, information gathered from community systems can help to show changes in behavior over time.

For example, if a supervisor from an individual’s current workplace provides a starkly different description of the individual compared to a supervisor from a prior workplace, the BTAU may seek to identify any traumatic events or other situational factors that occurred during the timeframe of the individual’s current employment that could explain the dramatic change in behavior.

Community systems fall into two general categories: formal and informal.

Formal systems are structured organizations or groups that tend to maintain a physical location and records. Examples include judicial, law enforcement, employment, mental health, and education systems.

In these types of systems, there are often formal records that document an individual’s history of interaction with the systems (e.g., judicial records or education records). While such records can provide vital information for a behavioral threat assessment, it must also be noted that formal records sometimes lack context for explaining an individual’s behavior and rarely tell the whole story.

For example, a student may have a long history of eliciting safety concerns among teachers and classmates at a university, but there may be little documentation in their university education record regarding the concerning behavior or any interventions applied.

As another example, a man with a long history of stalking and harassing women may have a law enforcement record reflecting only a single charge of trespassing without any additional details about the months of behavior that led to the charge.

BTAUs should seek access to records from formal systems when authorized and in accordance with all relevant privacy protections. BTAUs may be able to access records from other law enforcement agencies, courts, and community organizations.

However, any information gathered should be further supplemented through appropriate interviews.

For example, if a BTAU obtains information through a police record provided by another agency, the BTAU may want to establish further context around the information by contacting the police department and officers who have previously interacted with the individual or by requesting more detailed police reports about those interactions.