Pathways to Violence: Identifying and Preventing Active Shootings

Pathways to Violence: Identifying and Preventing Active Shootings
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August 18, 2021

Resource: Blog Industry: Commercial Enterprise
Tags: Performance Optimization, Risk Management, Vector LiveSafe

According to the FBI’s Active Shooter Incidents 20-Year Review, the average number of active shooter incidents per year has doubled in the past decade. These incidents primarily occur in open spaces, places of business, and educational environments. Regardless of your location or organization type, it’s important to remain aware of active shooter identifiers, warning signs, and preparation tactics.

This blog is inspired by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Active Shooter Preparedness Training.

Active Shooting Identifiers

There are three key indicators that classify most active shooter incidents:

  1. The perpetrator is using a firearm to kill or attempt to kill people in a populated area.
  2. The victims are random and do not follow a pattern.
  3. The shooting is not classified as a separate and more targeted event as such as an incident of domestic violence, gang activity, terrorism, etc.

The majority of active shooter events end before response teams arrive, so preparation is the first line of defense against these incidents. This includes developing strategies and procedures for preventing, responding, and recovering from active shooter events. Important components include training employees to recognize warning signs that can lead to violence, establishing a reliable reporting system, and developing intervention and response procedures.

Active Shooter Behavioral Warning Signs

There are several behavioral warning signs that most active shooters exhibit before resorting to mass violence. These signs are typically detectable to friends and coworkers and become increasingly severe as the perpetrator begins considering violent behavior. Making employees aware of these indicators can improve identification of at-risk individuals and facilitate early intervention.

Factors that predate violent ideation or behavior include, but are not limited to:

  • Health concerns
  • Financial strain
  • Difficult personal relationships or home and family life
  • Religious or ideological beliefs
  • Loss of community

As individuals experience increased frustration, these factors may escalate and lead to behavioral indicators such as paranoid or violent speech, feelings, or actions. In the workplace, this could manifest as an overreaction to office changes; intense or unfounded anger; increased absenteeism and lack of responsibility; and paranoid, self-harming, or violent speech.

Preventing Active Shootings

Once employees have been trained on these behavioral indicators, they must be able to put them to use. This requires a reliable reporting system. Employees should be able to submit questions or concerns about coworkers or workplace visitors, anonymously if desired, without fear of reprisal. While tip lines or HR reporting systems are a traditional solution, modern workplaces often benefit from more modern reporting tools, such as a mobile risk management platform that can be accessed using a smartphone. 

These reporting systems can not only help identify employees in crisis, but also improve visibility into health and safety concerns such as facilities hazards, suspicious activity, and other workplace incidents.

In some cases, employee reports may lead to the identification of worrisome or risky behaviors or patterns. These are best addressed by a threat management team that is prepared to evaluate and address concerns. This team should be organization-specific and may include existing company structures and resources. For example, your organization’s threat management team may include your Chief Security Officer, Human Resources leaders, General Counsel, and more.

Depending on the size and nature of your organization, you may also want to include an insider threat analyst or mental health counselor. This team should work to assess workplace risks and develop corresponding policies, strategies, and resources.

As potential threats are identified, the next step is intervention. This can include employee interviews, mental health and counseling, administrative action, law enforcement involvement or legal action, and more. When deciding upon next steps, your threat management team should consider a variety of passive and active intervention strategies that assist employees in need.

Active Shooter Safety

Understanding active shooter threats and intervening after warning signs is the key to preventing active shooter situations. This requires employee training, reliable reporting tools, and ongoing threat assessments and intervention strategies.

One way to facilitate active shooter education and prevention is by deploying a safety communications tool like Vector LiveSafe. The Vector LiveSafe Mobile app empowers organizational leaders and employees to easily report questions and concerns, access relevant policies, and communicate with key team members. For more information about Vector LiveSafe, visit our website or request a demo.

To learn more about how risk management platforms can help your organization gather actionable risk intelligence, consider our white paper, Community-Sourced Risk Intelligence: Its Role and Value at Work.

ALEXANDRA BRUNJES

Alexandra Brunjes has a B.S. in Neurobiology from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. with minors in Creative Writing and French. She is a published journalist and experienced health and science writer. Her expertise includes risk intelligence, healthcare and neuroscience, and technology.

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