Tools and Resources to Help with Deterring Attacks

These tools and training materials can help discourage attacks and increase awareness and reporting. The items listed in this section include materials on discouraging attacks and increasing reporting, training, and general knowledge on the threat and counter-threat strategies.

Discouraging Attacks and Increasing Reporting

Details on warning signs and threat assessments are in the following sections:

• The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS's) "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign is one way to reach communities and make them aware of threats. It has materials that agencies can request to use with their communities to encourage reporting (DHS, updated February 2, 2022).
• Threat (or Terrorism) Liaison Officers (TLOs) can be a great resource for community outreach. They are trained in awareness and can spread information through the community. The Joint Regional Intelligence Center (JRIC) maintains a web resource on TLOs (JRIC, undated).
• The Ready Houston "Make the Call" program provides public promotion materials to increase awareness (Ready Houston, undated).
• The Don't Name Them Campaign provides information and resources on not making mass shooters famous and, therefore, not encouraging copycat attacks (ALERRT, undated).
• The FBI's Active Shooter Resources portal provides a variety of resources and study reports, including studies on active shootings and pre-attack behaviors since 2000 (FBI, undated a).

Training

• The NYPD SHIELD program helps other law enforcement agencies formalize the way they partner with private agencies. It also hosts regular trainings for the private sector and will share their training content with other agencies (NYPD, undated).
• The FBI BAU can help provide training to a new local working group that will address threats. Contact your nearest FBI Field Office to learn more (FBI, undated b).
• The U.S. Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) provides reports and operational guidance on school shootings plots and 2017–2019 mass attack plots against public spaces in general and can help provide training to communities (U.S. Secret Service, undated).
• The Crisis Intervention Team International organization provides training and additional information to improve policing and community response individuals facing mental health and addiction issues (Crisis Intervention Team International, undated).
• RISS centers are a good source for ongoing training content for law enforcement (RISS, undated a).
• The following organizations provide updated training resources for law enforcement and communities:
  • Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (undated)
  • National Association of School Resource Officers (undated)
  • National Fusion Center Association (undated)
  • ALERRT Center (undated)
  • FBI National Academy Associates (undated)
  • International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts (undated)
  • National Association of Behavioral Intervention and Threat Assessment (undated a).

General Knowledge of the Threat and Strategies to Combat It

Knowledge of the Threat: General

• Strategic Intelligence Assessment and Data on Domestic Terrorism (FBI and DHS, 2021)
• Lone Offender: A Study of Lone Offender Terrorism in the United States, 1972–2015 (FBI BAU, 2019)
• Mass Attacks in Public Spaces: 2018 (NTAC, 2019a)
• Mass Attacks in Public Spaces: 2019 (NTAC, 2020)

Knowledge of the Threat: Education

• Building Resilience and Confronting Risk in the COVID-19 Era: A Parents & Caregivers Guide to Online Radicalization (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2021)

Strategies and Best Practices: General

• National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism (White House, 2021)
• Critical Issues for Intelligence Commanders, Chapter Two: Preventing Terrorism and Targeted Violence (Major Cities Chiefs Association, 2018)
• Practical Terrorism Prevention: Reexamining U.S. National Approaches to Addressing the Threat of Ideologically Motivated Violence(Jackson et al., 2019)
• Interventions to Prevent Targeted Violence and Terrorism: A Practice Guide for the US Prevention Practitioners Network (McCain Institute, 2021)

Strategies and Best Practices: Education

• Protecting America's Schools (NTAC, 2019b)
• Ten Essential Actions to Improve School Safety (School Safety Working Group, 2020)
• A Comprehensive Technical Package for the Prevention of Youth Violence and Associated Risk Behaviors (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2016)
• Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools (Dwyer, Oster, and Warger, 1998)

Strategies and Practices: Infrastructure and Private Industry

• Active Shooter (ASIS School Safety & Security Council, 2016)

Strategies and Practices: Law Enforcement Intelligence and Information-Sharing

• Law Enforcement Intelligence: A Guide for State, Local, and Tribal Law Enforcement Agencies, Third Edition (Carter, 2021)
• Fusion Center Guidelines: Developing and Sharing Information and Intelligence in a New Era (U.S. Department of Justice [DOJ] and DHS, 2006)
• Intelligence-Led Mitigation (Townsend et al., 2010)

Example Mass Attack After-Action Reports

• 1 October After-Action Review (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
• Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Terrorist Attack on Christchurch Masjidain on 15 March 2019 (Royal Commission of Inquiry, 2020)
• Navy Yard Shooting After Action Report (Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department, 2014)