The Secret Service released a blueprint on Wednesday that it says should help guide local and state law enforcement agencies to establish dedicated units that identify and stop tragedies such as mass shootings, assassination attempts and other targeted acts of violence before they happen.
The report from the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center provides a suggested framework for police and law enforcement agencies around the nation to follow regardless of their size, funding or location and is meant to give them similar resources and methods already used by the Secret Service to detect threats.
Steven Driscoll, assistant chief of the National Threat Assessment Center, told HuffPost in an email that giving local law enforcement partners “a structured approach” to stopping mass violence meant more communities would be safe.
Driscoll did not respond to inquiry about why the agency has opted to release this report now. It does, however, come after two assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump this year and a marked uptick in political violence in recent years, with most of the violence emanating from right-wing groups and right-wing extremists.
Notably, groups such as Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, or ACLED, have pointed out that despite higher rates of political violence from 2020 to 2023 and sharp political polarization amid the 2024 election cycle, organized extremist violence has slowly dipped in some areas but has increased in others. This could be due to crackdowns on right-wing extremist groups after the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, as well as a shifting of how the groups mobilize and organize.
Interestingly, the ACLED study points out that extremist groups have participated in about 10% of all pro-Trump demonstrations even though the events are roughly two-thirds less frequent than they were over the same period in 2020.
Ultimately, the recommendations are a bid to get more agencies on board with the creation of so-called Behavioral Threat Assessment Units that can “proactively identify and intervene” when people threaten violence to individuals, groups or places, such as schools, houses of worship and workplaces, according to the Secret Service.
The motivation for targeted violence is limitless and because of this, the Secret Service emphasized in its findings that no specific demographic should be singled out to have an “attacker’s profile.”
Rather, the Secret Service is emphatic that the creation of behavioral assessment units cannot and should not rely on profiling of race, ethnicity, age or gender.
Preventing mass violence is inextricably linked to law enforcement’s own “rapport building” and the ability to recognize “low threshold” warning signs.
According to the guide, a behavioral assessment unit can involve the gathering of information through interviews with a person or their family and community members, or reviewing a person’s social media and online presence.
As one district attorney put it last year when speaking to local reporters about an existing behavioral threat assessment unit in Wake County, North Carolina, a BTAU can help authorities figure out whether a person is “just mouthing off” or if they actually have the plans or the weapons they need to follow through with their threats, for example.
Existing behavioral threat assessment units operating with Department of Homeland Security oversight in Hawaii, Florida, New York and Washington, D.C., work with all manner of internal and external agencies or entities and experts to conduct and inform their behavioral assessments, the Secret Service noted. That includes experts such as psychologists or individuals with specific insights to that person or their community, like a local secular or religious group leader.
At its core, a BTAU is meant to spot “concerning behaviors,” including evidence of escalating interpersonal disputes, fixation on people or locations, stalking or harassment, the expression of suicidal ideation or self-harm and the idolization of past attackers.
For example, the report noted, parents might contact the unit with concerns if their 21-year-old son is driving to the state capital and they’ve noticed he’s recently become paranoid about the government spying on him and has said he wants to speak to the governor.
A behavioral assessment may be initiated under totally different circumstances, like if a person shows up at an old workplace after being fired or laid off and makes remarks about the boss getting what they “deserve,” or it could be prompted by reports of a person expressing frustration with the current political climate and saying they’d “rather die” than see the nation continue in its current state, the report said.
The behaviors worth investigating travel along a large continuum and are not just those that have a criminal nexus, according to the Secret Service.
As such, the agency offers guidance for standard operating procedures and protocols for BTAUs. Reporting must be anonymous and confidential, monitoring of the threats must be 24 hours a day and responses to all reports must be timely. On top of that, everything must take into account a person’s constitutional rights.
The Secret Service report recommends that BTAU investigators do more than compile profiles of would-be attackers; they should try to help them if needed.
A person who has raised the BTAU’s scrutiny should be asked if they are in need of employment assistance, substance abuse treatment or mental health treatment, for example. The Secret Service recommends then attempting to redirect their grievances. For instance, if it’s a workplace grievance, is there a way to help them de-escalate? If it’s bullying at school, is there a way to intervene?
From there, the agency recommends creating an environment in which violence is less likely to occur. This can mean limiting access to weapons, obtaining restraining orders, seeking GPS monitoring, getting support from family members, identifying counseling services and providing access to social services that address needs like food, medical care and housing.
The National Threat Assessment Center’s research found that 73% of all mass attacks in the U.S. involve firearms and that more than 29% of those attackers who used guns were subject to at least one federal ban on firearm possession.
Though a court-ordered removal of a gun may be a last resort, BTAUs can balance constitutional rights and public safety by limiting access through temporary, voluntary out-of-home storage through a trusted family member, friend, retailer or police department, according to the Secret Service.