Members of the Massachusetts State Police 90th Recruit Training Group are sworn in as law enforcement officers during ceremonies Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.

A new guide is the tool brandished today by the United States Secret Service, while calling for greater cooperation from agencies at the local and state level to prevent violent acts throughout the country.

The agency charged with protecting the lives of the president of the United States and other high-ranking officials wants state and local law enforcement to do more to prevent potential threats from escalating into violence.

And he's trying to show law enforcement agencies across the country exactly how to do it.

The U.S. Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) released new guidance Wednesday, encouraging law enforcement agencies to create specific units to address threatening behavior in cases where where there are significant concerns, even if no laws have yet been broken.

The guidance specifically calls for law enforcement agencies to establish what NTAC calls behavioral threat assessment units, which can assess potential dangers and then provide resources to make sure people get help before resorting to violence.

“What our research has continually found is that in many cases of mass violence or other forms of targeted violence, the attacker's behavior was witnessed by bystanders in the community, some of whom attempted to report their concerns to public safety officials.” said Lina Alathari, director of NTAC, briefing reporters ahead of the guidance's release.

“Unfortunately, many communities lack the structured systems to receive, evaluate and respond to these reports in a way that reduces the likelihood of a violent or tragic outcome,” he said.

But, NTAC's call 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 by crisis counselors and social services.

Now this latest guidance comes as national security officials prepare for potential violence.

The Department of Homeland Security's annual 2025 threat assessment, released last month, warned: “The terrorist threat environment in the United States over the next year will remain high.”

“The threat will continue to be characterized primarily by lone criminals or small cells motivated to violence by a combination of racial, religious, gender or anti-government grievances; conspiracy theories; and personalized factors,” he added.

The Secret Service has responded to two unrelated attempts of assassinating former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, and has been criticized for failing to stop one of the would-be assassins from firing eight shots and wounding Trump before he was detained.

Investigators in that case have said that the 20 year old armed mannow dead, had spent months investigating murders and saw the former president as a “target of opportunity.”

The new guide aims to show law enforcement agencies how to spot warning signs more quickly and find ways to intervene.

“We have seen historically that law enforcement in the United States can sometimes 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 Deputy Director Steven Driscoll.

“This publication represents the most comprehensive guide ever produced on how to adapt and operationalize the Secret Service Behavioral Threat Assessment model for use by state and local law enforcement agencies,” he explained.

Some state law enforcement agencies have already adopted the Secret Service model.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation established 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 university system to prevent potential attacks.

The state of Hawaii has also created a team to intervene in cases of possible violence. And there is a similar program in Washington, the capital of the United States.

“The behavioral threat assessment methodology has proven effective in protecting the community time and time again,” Driscoll said. “Prevention is carried out successfully every day and, fortunately, these are stories we never hear about, when everyone comes home safely.”

As an example, Driscoll pointed to a 2021 NTAC study that analyzed 67 incidents in which attacks on schools were prevented because students and community members reported warning signs so authorities could intervene before someone was killed. wounded.

Despite these successes, NTAC said it does not have 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 intervene when a threat has been identified but no law has been broken.

However, there is some federal funding available.

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it has awarded almost $90 million through its Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program since 2020.

And NTAC's Alathari said specialized units can be effective even when people and resources are scarce.

“Behavioral assessment units can vary in size,” he said in response to a question from the Voice of America. “An agency with limited resources to establish this type of unit could begin with a single designated violence prevention officer who maintains responsibility for gathering information to manage situations that could revolve around potential violence.”

(Journalist Jeff Seldin is VOA's National Security correspondent)