UT Police Officers reviewed real-life case studies and discussed best practices for assessing threat situations on campus during a two-day training in late January.

The training for UT Police Officers focused on two main topics: Workplace Assessment of Violence Risk and Terrorist Radicalization Assessment Protocol.

The training expands UT Police’s Threat Management program and aligns with the Workplace Violence Prevention Program.

The training instructor, Reid Meloy, Ph.D., is a board-certified forensic psychologist who consults throughout the United States and Europe on criminal and civil cases.

During the training, UT Police Officers delved into behavioral threat assessment and management, and the indicators for a structured assessment of workplace and campus targeted violence risk. The instrument for workplace risks assesses the risk of workplace and campus-related targeted violence. Targeted violence is when an individual intentionally commits an act of violence against a pre-selected target, and that can include either people or places.

The training also placed emphasis on areas of concern such as stalking and violence, the evolving nature of targeted attacks, and best practices for case management.

Day two of the training supplied conversations around the structure professional judgment framework, Terrorist Radicalization Assessment Protocol. The framework provides guidance on the detection of signals for targeted violence, as well as eight ‘proximal’ warning behaviors and ten ‘distal’ characteristics. Case studies reviewed included extreme right and extreme left belief systems, and religious and secular belief systems.