Tools and Resources to Help Build Prevention Teams

The following tools and resources can be used to build partnerships and support planning, training, and information-sharing across government and community providers.

General Guidance

• The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI's) Making Prevention a Reality: Identifying, Assessing, and Managing the Threat of Targeted Attacks report provides a comprehensive guide to teaming, the threat assessment process, and key risk factors (Amman et al., 2016). Although it is focused on assessment, the teaming guidance is broadly applicable.

Law Enforcement Networks

• The New York Police Department's (NYPD's) SHIELD program helps other law enforcement agencies formalize the way they partner with private agencies. Members of the National Shield Network can take the NYPD SHIELD packet of templates and apply them to building a program in their own cities or regions, with the hopes of ultimately building a global network (NYPD, undated).
• The NYPD Operation Sentry program has a network of more than 800 law enforcement agencies, both across the United States and around the world (Dienst, 2020). Operation Sentry is a sophisticated global network designed to protect communities from targeted acts of violence, terrorism, and other serious crimes. The program serves as a network through which data may be securely disseminated between trusted partner agencies. One of the mantras of the Operation Sentry program is "strength in unity." The program's real-time information-sharing capabilities have been integral in the response to recent high-profile attacks.

Infrastructure and the Private Sector

• Private-sector Information-Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) are one way to reach critical infrastructure operators that are in different sectors (National Council of ISACs, undated). The centers collect, analyze, and disseminate threat intelligence to help protect critical infrastructure, their personnel, and their customers.
• FBI Infragard conducts outreach to the private sector (FBI, undated c).

Compliance with Privacy Requirements

• The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Guide and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) Guide can be shared with local partners to help them understand opportunities for information-sharing to protect public safety and overcome barriers (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and FBI, undated; FBI and U.S. Department of Education, undated).

Education

• School resource officer (SRO) programs, such as the Loudoun County SRO program (Loudoun County Virginia Sheriff's Office, undated), are examples of how to build trust between law enforcement and education sectors and how to integrate SROs into community threat assessment teams.
• As an example of enabling state legislation and agencies, Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act (Florida Senate Bill 7026, 2018) gave the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) the legal tools to receive information from schools and to establish the Office of Safe Schools within the Florida Department of Education (Florida Department of Education, undated).

Information-Sharing

• The Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS) centers (RISS, undated a) provides
  • RISSIntel: a criminal intelligence database for any law enforcement agency to use and share information according to its own agency policies (RISS, undated c). It allows searching for related entries in the full database, which has participants from agencies throughout the country and points the user to a contact for more information
  • RISSafe: a deconfliction system to protect officer safety and ensure local awareness of related efforts (RISS, undated b)
  • additional support in training and analysis.
• Los Angeles Regional Criminal Information Clearinghouse (LA Clear) is an example of a central repository used to share information and tips (LA Clear, undated).

Behavioral Analysis and Threat Assessment

• The FBI Behavior Analysis Unit (BAU) is a resource that could be used to provide training to a new local working group that will address threats. Contact your nearest FBI Field Office to learn more (FBI, undated d).

Health Care and Mental Health

• The Pasco County Behavioral Health Intervention Team (BHIT) helps find pathways to share critical information to create better plans for supporting people in need (Blazonis, 2019).
• The San Diego Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) pairs licensed mental health clinicians with specially trained law enforcement officers and paramedics. One of the things they do is figure out what information law enforcement can collect to be most useful to PERT (Community Research Foundation, undated).
• The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) maintains a resource page on Crisis Intervention Teams, which provides guidance and best practices on starting and maintaining teams (NAMI, undated).
• The Crisis Intervention Team International provides training and information to help train police officers to participate on Crisis Intervention Teams in their areas (Crisis Intervention Team International, undated).