By Steve Neavling
The Secret Service released a comprehensive blueprint on Wednesday, aimed at helping local and state law enforcement agencies prevent tragedies like mass shootings, assassination attempts, and other acts of targeted violence.
The report, issued by the agency’s National Threat Assessment Center, offers a framework for law enforcement to proactively identify and stop threats before they occur, using similar resources and methods already employed by the Secret Service, Huffpost.com reports.
The guide provides recommendations that can be implemented by police departments of any size, regardless of location or funding, to create dedicated Behavioral Threat Assessment Units. These units are designed to detect and intervene when individuals pose threats to schools, workplaces, houses of worship, or specific people and groups.
Steven Driscoll, assistant chief of the National Threat Assessment Center, explained that providing local agencies with a “structured approach” would increase safety in communities across the country. While the Secret Service did not disclose why the report was released at this time, it follows two recent assassination attempts on former President Trump and a notable rise in political violence in the past few years. Data from groups like the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) indicate that despite a decrease in organized extremist violence in some areas, it has increased in others, especially in the context of the 2024 election cycle.
The Secret Service stressed that the motivation behind targeted violence is diverse, and profiling based on race, ethnicity, age, or gender should not be used to create attacker profiles. Instead, the focus should remain on identifying behaviors that signal potential threats.
