Page:Protective Intelligence and Threat Assessment Investigations - A Guide for State and Local Law Enforcement Officials.pdf/32

 metal detectors, may keep persons with weapons away from a protected person and deter would-be attackers from trying to approach with a weapon.

Protective intelligence—a less visible aspect of protection— consists of programs and systems aimed at identifying and preventing persons with the means and interest to attack a protected person from getting close enough to mount an attack and, when possible, reducing the likelihood that they would decide to mount an attack. Protective intelligence programs are based on the idea that the risk of violence is minimized if persons with the interest, capacity, and willingness to mount an attack can be identified and rendered harmless before they approach a protected person. This involves three key functions:


 * Identification of persons who might pose a threat.
 * Assessment of persons who are identified as a potential threat.
 * Case management of persons and groups deemed a threat to a protected person.

The second step in developing a threat assessment program involves determining what is needed to complete protective intelligence tasks, examining what is needed to conduct threat assessments, and deciding how to maintain the threat assessment program. Again, several questions must be answered:

24
 * Who will carry out protective intelligence responsibilities? What kind of staffing is needed?
 * How will the knowledge and expertise developed by protective intelligence investigators be maintained and shared over time?
 * How will new investigators learn, and how will experienced investigators teach?
 * What balance of specialized threat assessment expertise and general investigative experience is desirable?
 * Can the protective intelligence program build ways to learn from its experiences?
 * How will case information be stored and retrieved for individual and aggregated case analysis?