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Access the Campus Resilience Program Resource Library. |
DHS Launches New Campus Resilience Program Resource Library
Earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS') Office of Academic Engagement (OAE) launched the
Campus Resilience Program Resource Library. This free, online repository offers resources to empower practitioners and campus leaders to better prepare for, respond to, and recover from various threats and hazards relevant to the academic community. The resources included represent a variety of federal, state, local, private-sector, emergency management, and academic association entities. Resources in the library are organized according to a specific threat/hazard, and then further categorized according to their relevant mission area (prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery) as outlined in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's
National Preparedness Goal.
The main sections of the resource library focus on:
- Cyber Incidents: Acts of cyberwarfare, cyberterrorism, and cybercrime threaten the integrity of the virtual world, which houses many of the nation's most essential financial, communications, information, and security systems.
- DHS Campaigns: DHS sponsors a variety of campaigns to help stakeholders, including institutions of higher education (IHEs), build a strong foundation for a more secure and resilient nation.
- DHS Grants: DHS provides grants to state, local, tribal, and territorial jurisdictions that can be used for training, exercises, planning, personnel, and equipment to prepare for many threats and hazards.
- Epidemic/Pandemic: Infectious diseases can spread with extreme rapidity, threatening the health and life safety of regional communities or global populations. On college and university campuses where faculty, students, and staff work and/or live in close proximity, epidemic or pandemic outbreaks have the ability to endanger the continuity of essential academic and administrative functions.
- Explosives Attack: Criminals and terrorists frequently use explosives to damage property, destroy critical infrastructure, intimidate victims, and attack unsuspecting civilians.
- Hazardous Materials Release: The improper leak, spillage, discharge, or disposal of hazardous materials or substances poses a significant threat to human health and safety, campus property, and the surrounding environment.
- Natural Disasters: These include all types of severe weather, which have the potential to pose a significant threat to human health and safety, property, critical infrastructure, and/or homeland security.
- Other Federal Programs and Resources: The federal government offers a range of programs and resources in support of school and campus safety.
- Power Failure: Every day, the U.S. consumes a vast amount of energy. This energy dependence augments the threat of a catastrophic power failure given that even temporary or minor failures interrupt critical economic, communication, and security systems.
- Radiological Attack: IHEs should use these resources to prepare for a radiological attack, which may include the detonation of a 'dirty bomb' or other radiological dispersal device. Such an attack could cause significant localized destruction, contaminate the surrounding environment, and evoke intense fear and anxiety within affected communities.
- School and Workplace Violence: Acts of school and workplace violence, including both active shooter incidents and violent protests, threaten life safety and security, undermine public confidence, and emotionally devastate affected communities.
- Additional Resources: In addition to the risk-aligned resources, some resources contain critical information that supports overall resilience planning efforts.
OAE will continue coordination with its federal, private sector, and academic partners to add new resources to the Campus Resilience Program Resource Library in the near future. Learn more about OAE and their outreach and engagement efforts by visiting the
Academic Engagement web page.
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| Download the NTAC report. |
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U.S. Secret Service Releases Report on Mass Attacks in Public Spaces
Last week, the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC)
released (PDF) a comprehensive study on mass attacks entitled
Mass Attacks in Public Spaces - 2017
(PDF).
This report provides an overview of 28 acts of intentional violence that occurred in public or semi-public spaces in 2017 during which significant harm was caused to three or more persons. Incidents attributed to gang- or drug-related violence were excluded. The report provides an analysis of the attackers, motives and targeting, and key investigative themes.
Mass attacks violate the safety of the places we work, learn, shop, relax, and otherwise conduct our day-to-day lives. The loss of 147 lives and injury to nearly 700 others in 2017 mass attacks had a devastating impact on our nation as a whole. Those charged with ensuring public safety strive to identify methods to prevent these types of attacks. To aid in these efforts, NTAC examined these 28 incidents to identify key themes for enhancing threat assessment and investigative practices. Regardless of whether these attacks were acts of workplace violence, domestic violence, school-based violence, or terrorism, NTAC's review identified similar themes in the backgrounds of the perpetrators, including:
- Nearly half were motivated by a personal grievance related to a workplace, domestic, or other issue.
- Over half had histories of criminal charges, mental health symptoms, and/or illicit substance use or abuse.
- All had at least one significant stressor within the last five years, and over half had indications of financial instability in that timeframe.
- Over three-quarters made concerning communications and/or elicited concern from others prior to carrying out their attacks. On average, those who did elicit concern caused more harm than those who did not.
These findings support existing best practices that the USSS has established in the field of threat assessment and highlight the importance of gathering information on a person's background, behaviors, and situational factors; corroborating the information from multiple sources; assessing the risk the individual poses for violence; and identifying intervention points to mitigate that risk. Developed by federal law enforcement, first the USSS and then the FBI, behavioral threat assessment is a fact-finding and systematic process used to determine if someone is thinking about or planning for violence. Behavioral threat assessment in higher education relies upon collaboration and partnerships in the community to identify and respond to at-risk behaviors. Campuses can learn more about best practices in threat assessment, components of effective programs, and steps in the process in this free,
on-demand webinar.
Since June 1999, the USSS has been working to better understand, and ultimately help prevent, school shootings in the U.S. Through collaboration with the Department of Education known as the Safe School Initiative, initiated after the 1999 Columbine school shooting, they have focused on developing accurate and useful information about prior school attacks that could help prevent some future ones from occurring. The reports that came from this collaboration, along with others the USSS has produced, may be valuable to campus public safety officials in their efforts to prevent school violence. These downloadable resources include:
To learn more about the important work the NTAC program has done in the prevention of targeted violence as well as projects NTAC has recently initiated that are specifically related to school safety, read Dr. Lina Alathari's (Chief of the USSS NTAC)
oral testimony (PDF) before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary from March 14, 2018.
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Professional Development Opportunities
Title: Federal Emergency Management Agency Jobs and Internships Webinar
Organization: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Date: April 19, 2018 at 4:00PM ET
Location: Online
Fee: Free
Title: How Law Enforcement Can Prepare for, Respond to and Manage Hate Rallies
Organization: Justice Clearinghouse
Date: April 26, 2018 at 1:00PM ET
Location: Online
Fee: Free
Title: Behavioral Threat Assessment & Threat Management Training
Organization: SIGMA Threat Management Associates
Date: May 11, 2018
Location: San Francisco, CA
Fee: Registration fee
For additional trainings and events, access our searchable online calendar.
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Publications
Access free publications that identify challenges in the field and provide case studies, lessons learned, and promising practices.
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Free Archived Webinars
View on-demand, closed captioned webinar recordings on a variety of campus safety topics.
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Online Library
Browse through a diverse selection of reports, research, toolkits, guides, webinars, white papers, and more.
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This project was supported by Grant No. 2013-MU-BX-K011 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the US Department of Justice.
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