The Role of Protective Intelligence in Managing Threats Associated with Targeted Violence and the Active Shooter

Matthew Doherty, Senior Vice President
Robert Davis, Senior Vice President
Michael Crane, Esq., CPP, CFE, Senior Vice President
and Regis Becker, CPP, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer
from The Pennsylvania State University
The Role of Protective Intelligence in Managing Threats
Associated with Targeted Violence and the Active Shooter

© 2015 HILLARD HEINTZE LLC | Protecting What Matters | www.hillardheintze.com
AGENDA
PART I
Why We're Here: Context and Mindset
PART II
Know Your Enemy: Threat Assessment
and Protective Intelligence
PART III
Practicing Prevention:
Critical Issues and Insights
2

PART I
Why We're Here:
Context and Mindset
Michael Crane, Esq., CPP, CFE
Senior Vice President, Hillard Heintze
3

© 2015 HILLARD HEINTZE LLC | Protecting What Matters | www.hillardheintze.com 4
Employers must maintain
“a place of employment
which is free from
recognized hazards that
are causing or are likely to
cause death or serious
physical harm ...”
OSHA/MOSHA
Protecting the Workplace: A Top Priority

Protecting the Workplace: A New Risk
5
Family of Navy Yard shooting
victim files wrongful-death claim
• $37.5 million suit alleges the Navy and
the Department of Veterans Affairs
overlooked or missed a series of red flags
that should have alerted them to the
troubled history of the shooter.
• The action could inspire other
victims’ families to seek legal
advice or file lawsuits.

Protecting the Workplace: Foreseeability
6
Beware of the warning signs
Was the ABB Power Plant shooting preventable?
• Known to be disgruntled, unhappy at work and angry at the company.
• Friends said he complained about pressure and conflict with supervisors.
• Part of a class-action lawsuit against the company
over pension plan and 401(k) fees and expenses.
• Subject purchased two of the four weapons
he used in the incident only the day before –
an AK-47 and a 12-gauge shotgun.

Common Roadblocks: Overcoming the Barriers
Multiple factors impede workplace
violence prevention
• Lack of awareness about the knowable
indicators of a potential attack.
• Poor understanding of risk and
mitigation measures.
• Limited cross-functional collaboration
and information sharing.
• Absence of an overall strategy to address
targeted violence prevention.
7

Targeted Violence: Understanding and Addressing the Risk
Targeted Violence is any incident of violence where a known or knowable
attacker selects a particular target prior to their violent attack.
8

A Proactive Approach: Prevention and Early Intervention
To manage threats associated with targeted
violence and the active shooter, we must
first gain an understanding of the factors
that may indicate potential risk.
This includes:
• Dispelling prevailing beliefs about attackers.
• Understanding the pre-attack process.
• Learning the processes involved in behavioral
threat assessment and protective intelligence.

PART II
Know Your Enemy:
Threat Assessment and
Protective Intelligence
Matthew Doherty, Senior Vice President
10

Exceptional Case Study Project
The U.S. Secret Service and National Institute of Justice
FIVE-YEAR STUDY
Examined the thinking and behavior of
83 attackers from 1949 to 1996.
74 ATTACKS
• 6 attacks were carried out by 16 individuals
who were members of a group.
• 68 attacks were carried out by
individuals acting alone.
• 24 of the 83 attackers were interviewed.
Early Research: A Crucial Body of Knowledge

Early Research: A Crucial Body of Knowledge
12
Prior to the Study, we had these prevailing beliefs about attackers:
MYTH 2:
They are mentally ill
MYTH 3:
They make a direct threat
MYTH 1:
They fit a distinct profile
FACT 1:
Attackers do not fit
one descriptive or
demographic profile
FACT 2:
Mental illness rarely
plays a key role
in attacker behavior
FACT 3:
Persons who pose an
actual threat most often do
not make a threat

What was learned about
the pre-attack process?
• An understandable and often discernible
process of thinking and behavior.
• Stems from an interaction among the potential
attacker, past stressful events, a current
situation and the target.
• A potential attacker’s behavior is vital to
identifying his or her intentions. The attacker’s
thinking, planning and logistical preparations
have to be detected and interrupted.

Attackers have motives.
• Achieve fame and notoriety.
• Law enforcement-assisted suicide.
• Bring national attention to a
perceived problem.
14
Attackers have common backgrounds.
• Despair. Depression. Suicidal thoughts.
• History of harassing or stalking.
• Major loss or change in life.
• Few arrests for violent crimes.
Attackers select targets.
• Based on their motives and
the accessibility of the target.
• Often consider more than
one target.

15
What are “attack-related behaviors”?
• Interest or obsession with violence
• Develop attack plan
• Approach or visit site of attack
• Attempted assault or actual attack
• Attempt to penetrate security
• Approach or visit site with weapon

Assess potential threats from
the outside, looking in.
• Always remember that the question
at the core of a threat assessment is
not “Has the subject made a threat?”
but “Does the subject pose a threat?”
• Investigations are behavior-based
rather than statement-based.
• Information sharing is key
to prevention.

Prevention: Behavioral Threat Assessment
What is Behavioral Threat
Assessment?
The process of gathering and assessing
information about persons who may have the
interest, motive, intention and capability of
committing an act of targeted violence.
Threat Assessment is the approach
supported by the Exceptional Case Study
Project findings.
17

Behavioral threat assessment – three key processes
18
Manage
The threat the
individual poses
Assess
If the individual poses a
risk – gather information
from multiple sources
Identify
Individuals who have
the idea or intent
of attacking

Profiling
Automated
Decision-
Making
Structured
Clinical
Assessment /
Guided
Professional
Judgment
Various approaches to assessing the likelihood
of violence exist. Most are effective in one or
more respects – but ineffective in others.
19

What motivated the subject to make the
statement or take the action which caused
him or her to come to our attention?1
Prevention: Protective Intelligence - Ten Key Questions

What has the subject communicated to
anyone concerning his or her intentions?
21
2

Has the subject shown inappropriate interest
in assassins, weapons, militant ideas or
mass murders?
22
3
Protective Intelligence: Ten Key Questions

Is there evidence that the subject has
engaged in attack-related behavior
targeting our protectee(s)?
23
4

Does the subject have a history of mental illness
involving command hallucinations, delusional
ideas, feelings of persecution, etc.?
24
5

Does the subject have the ability to
plan and execute a violent action against
one of our protectees?
25
6

Is there evidence that the subject is
experiencing desperation and/or despair?
26
7

Is what the subject says consistent
with his or her actions?
27
8
Protective Intelligence: Ten Key Questions

Is there concern among those who know
the subject that he or she might take
action based on inappropriate ideas?
28
9

Are there factors in the subject’s life or
environment which might increase or decrease
the likelihood of the subject attempting to
attack a protectee?
29
10

Real-life Context: Case Studies
Managing a Stalker Incident
An anonymous caller reported one of the
firm’s receptionists was slandering its
management team. The company quickly
learned the caller was known to their
employee and had been stalking her for
over a year. Calls to local law
enforcement resulted in an initial flurry of
incident reports and administrative filings,
but progress in the case quickly stalled.
30

A Former Employee’s
Potential for Violence
A disgruntled former employee
began sending inappropriate
emails to current employees.
The client needed to assess the
individual’s potential for violence.
31

The Facebook Threat
An employee in an East Coast branch
office posted threatening statements
about company personnel on his
Facebook wall along with several pictures
of himself posing with weapons.
32

PART III
Practicing Prevention:
Critical Issues and Insights
Robert Davis, Senior Vice President

Targeted workplace violence
in the United States
On average, 1.7 million people annually are victims of violent crime
while working – including an average of 700 homicides per year.
34
Best Practices: Critical Issues to Keep in Mind

35
U.S. Workplace Homicides
by Type, 2011-2012

36
We must be PREPARED.
An Active Shooter is an individual actively
engaged in killing or attempting to kill people
in a confined and populated area.
• 37% of attacks ended in less than 5 minutes
• Average attack lasted 12 minutes
• 74% of attackers entered through main entrance
• 51% of attacks occurred in workplace
We must do everything possible
to PREVENT active shooter events.

Active
Shooter
Plan
Active Shooter Plan: Four Key Components
37
An Active Shooter Plan
Consists of Four
Key Components
• Prevent & Mitigate
• Prepare
• Respond
• Recover

Active Shooter Plan: Prevent and Mitigate
• Workplace Violence Prevention
(Pre-Employment Screening and EAP)
• Threat Assessment
• Active Shooter Training
• Active Shooter Committee
38

Active Shooter Plan: Prepare
Take a leadership role
in the pre-planning and
training process with:
• First Responders, including
police, fire and medical
• All departments
• Key stakeholders, including
management, human
resources and leadership
39

Active Shooter Plan: Respond
Follow DHS Guidelines
RUN > HIDE > FIGHT
• Implementation of internal and external
emergency management plans
• Coordinated Incident Command Posts
• Media Relations Center
40

Active Shooter Plan: Recover
• Restoration of normal operations –
internal and external
• Debriefings
• Post-incident press conferences
• Multi-disciplinary debriefings
• After-action report
41

Internal investigations
are controlled by
the organization
External investigations
are controlled by law
enforcement agencies

Why workplace violence prevention is not
best left to law enforcement.
43
• Traditional law enforcement primarily focuses on
post-event operations – investigating, seizing evidence,
arresting suspects and prosecuting the accused.
• Unless law enforcement officials have received specific
training on violence prevention, they are not likely to take
advantage of information reported to them in an effective
manner.
• In a worst-case scenario, they may entirely fail to
respond in any meaningful way.

ASIS Standard on Workplace Violence
Provides an overview of
policies, processes and
protocols organizations can
adopt to help:
• Identify and prevent threatening
behaviors and violence affecting
the workplace, and
• Better address and resolve threats and
violence that have actually occurred.
44

Questions and Discussion
45
Matthew Doherty
Senior Vice President
matthew.doherty@hillardheintze.com
Michael Crane, Esq., CPP, CFE
michael.crane@hillardheintze.com
Robert Davis
robert.davis@hillardheintze.com
30 South Wacker Drive, Suite 1400
Chicago, Illinois 60606
312.869.8500
Regis W. Becker, CPP
Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer
The Pennsylvania State University
rwb32@psu.edu

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