Threat Assessment Tool

No one just snaps and goes postal.

There are always warning signs but did anyone connect the dots? Let’s say that an employee makes a veiled threat to a manager. A co-worker knows about the subject’s recent gun purchase. An ex-girlfriend has a restraining order against him. The subject posted inflammatory comments on a YouTube video about the company. All of these things were known but not combined into one place to provide the gestalt view, the overall picture of the different risk factors according to the pre-employment medical website.

The Threat Assessment Tool is a web based service for administrators and investigators to document, review and and visually assess findings in potentially violent cases . The centerpiece of the program is an interactive pie chart that plots findings and data points to allow the investigators to visually determine the overall risk. The higher severity factors are placed towards the center of the pie chart with a concentration towards the bulls-eye indicating a greater risk of violence. In addition, data points are also shown on a timeline graph to depict the frequency trends which may indicate a lethal conclusion.

The tool is designed for Threat Assessment professionals, Law Enforcement, Security Directors, Private Investigators, Human Resources, Victim Advocates and any agency or company interested in maintaining a secure environment. All Higher Education institutions are required to have a Threat Assessment program by Law (Clery Act). Threat Assessment Team members will be able to share comments, add findings and assigned actions steps to further investigate and implement security measures.

There is currently no tool available that organizes and clearly displays the data to allow the investigators to effectively assess the threat. It does not automatically analyse, provide an overall ranking nor give a prediction but rather is a tool for trained, experienced investigators to organize their data. The individual rankings of each finding (or factor) is based on their judgement.

It is the hope that this tool will help companies, schools and agencies organize and visualize their investigations to quickly and comprehensively assess potential threats to allocate resources for intervention.