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WASHINGTON —The U.S. agency charged with protecting the life of the president of the United States and other high-ranking officials wants state and local law enforcement to do more to stop potential threats from escalating into violence.
And it is trying to show police agencies across the country exactly how to do it.
The U.S. Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) on Wednesday issued a new guide, encouraging law enforcement agencies to create specific units to address threatening behavior in cases where there are significant concerns, even though no laws have been broken.
The guide specifically calls for police agencies to set up what NTAC calls behavioral threat assessment units that can assess potential dangers and then provide resources to make sure individuals get help before they resort to violence.
"What our research has continuously found is that in many cases of mass violence or other forms of targeted violence, the attacker's behavior was witnessed by community bystanders, some of whom sought to report their concerns to public safety officials," said Lina Alathari, NTAC director, briefing reporters ahead of the guide's release.
"Unfortunately, many communities lack the structured systems to receive, evaluate and respond to these reports in a way that would reduce the likelihood of a violent or tragic outcome," she said.
NTAC's plea for law enforcement agencies to find ways to be more proactive is not new.
A January 2023 report that analyzed 173 mass attacks carried out over a five-year period urged communities to make it easier for witnesses to report concerns and allow for earlier intervention from crisis counselors and social services.
But the latest guidance comes as national security officials are bracing for potential violence.
The Department of Homeland Security's 2025 annual threat assessment, issued last month, warned, "The terrorism threat environment in the United States over the next year will remain high.
"The threat will continue to be characterized primarily by lone offenders or small cells motivated to violence by a combination of racial, religious, gender, or anti-government grievances; conspiracy theories; and personalized factors," it added.
The Secret Service has itself responded to two unrelated attempts to assassinate former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, coming under criticism for its failure to prevent one of the would-be assassins from firing eight shots and injuring Trump before he was stopped.
Investigators in that case have said the now dead 20-year-old gunman had spent months researching assassinations and saw the former president as a "target of opportunity."
The new guide, issued Wednesday, aims to show police agencies how to spot warning signs more quickly and find ways to intervene.
"We have seen historically that law enforcement in the United States may at times feel limited in what they can do when responding to reports of threats or other concerning behavior, particularly when that behavior does not involve criminal activity," said NTAC Assistant Chief Steven Driscoll.
"This publication represents the most comprehensive guidance ever produced on how to adapt and operationalize the Secret Services Behavioral Threat Assessment model for use by state and local law enforcement agencies," he said.
Some state law enforcement agencies have already adopted the Secret Service model.
North Carolina's State Bureau of Investigation set up a behavioral analysis threat assessment unit following a 2018 shooting that killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida.
The unit works with other state agencies and the state's university system to prevent potential attacks.
The state of Hawaii has likewise created a team to intervene in cases of potential violence. And there is a similar program in Washington, the U.S. capital.
"Behavioral threat assessment methodology has been proven effective in safeguarding community time and again," Driscoll said. "Prevention happens successfully every day, and thankfully, these are stories that we never hear about, when everybody goes home safely."
As an example, Driscoll pointed to a 2021 NTAC study that looked at 67 incidents in which attacks on schools were averted due to students and community members reporting warning signs so authorities could intervene before anyone got hurt.
Despite such successes, NTAC said it does not have any data on how many communities have behavioral threat assessment units. And officials worry that too many state and local law enforcement agencies lack access to programs that allow them to step in when a threat has been identified but no law has been broken.
Some federal funding, though, is available.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it has awarded almost $90 million through its Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program since 2020.
And NTAC's Alathari said the specialized units can be effective, even when people and resources are scarce.
"Behavioral assessment units are able to vary in size," she said in response to a question from VOA. "An agency with limited resources to establish this kind of unit could begin with just a single designated violence prevention officer who maintains the responsibility of gathering information, information to manage situations that might revolve around potential violence."