What is threat assessment?
Threat Assessment
Threat assessment and management is an ongoing process. A person who is low risk today can become a high risk tomorrow.
Threat assessment is the process of gathering comprehensive information about the threat itself, the person making the threat (where possible), and the victim, to aid in formulating an opinion about the level of concern you are facing. This is not a ‘gut feeling’ opinion, but rather based on knowledge, research, experience and training in the threat assessment field. Once the level of concern is determined, a comprehensive management strategy is devised to actively reduce the level of concern, and monitor the situation over time. Each threat management strategy is tailor-made to the facts and circumstances of the particular case. You cannot manage what you haven’t assessed.
Identify
Is there a possible threat? What kind of threat is it?
Assess
Is the threat currently low risk or high risk? Is there a possibility of violence? When and where would this violence be carried out? Is the threat escalating? What is an appropriate reaction?
Manage
Which strategies will counter or reduce the threats of violence? How can escalation of violence be avoided? Is the level of threat changing?
Frequently Asked Questions
“I was victim of a stalker. Everyone told me that the stalker is not a physical danger to me. But I am still afraid every time the phone rings.”
Does your company know how to handle threats? Or do you simply ignore the threats and hope they are going to go away?
You are not alone. Most companies are unsure of how to handle communicated threats. But ignoring possible threats leaves staff feeling vulnerable and lacking support. Until the threat has been resolved, your staff will remain unproductive, frightened and anxious. If the threat recurs, your staff will feel even more anxious.
Without knowing how to respond, a company may realize too late that action needs to be taken. Alternatively the company may go overboard and take extreme steps, which could unwittingly lead to violence. Expensive security is not necessarily the answer, as it doesn’t deal with the threat itself. Worse still, you may have to deal with the physical and legal consequences of real violence.
We offer a professional threat assessment and management intervention that will make your staff feel protected and supported by your company. And save money at the same time.
It is cheaper to prevent a threat incident from occurring than it is to deal with the consequences.
Physical protection is an important part of security, but it must be used in conjunction with a threat assessment and management process. For example, on its own, a security control point can be a barrier to the actual violence taking place, but it cannot assess, prevent or avoid the results of a threat. Often these barriers become the point at which the violence starts.
Even the President of the United States, the most protected person in the world, has a threat assessment capacity within his protective structures.
Threat assessment, threat management and physical security work together to:
- prevent overreaction to low level threats
- reduce the threat level
- bring peace of mind to the person or organization who is the focus of the threat
- save you money by reducing unnecessary expenditure on protective services.
Threat assessment is a specific and professional field of expertise, with its own professional bodies, backed up by research and practice.
Security companies often employ ex-law enforcement officers, who are experienced in policing and security, but who usually have no training in threat assessment. A typical response when attempting to open a case of stalking, or verbal threats, at a police station is: “But he hasn’t done anything yet.”
Just having a background in law enforcement or a degree in psychology is not enough. To offer professional threat assessment and management services, you need specific training and supervision in the field. Our staff at L&S are all trained and experienced threat assessors and managers, in addition to having law enforcement and psychological experience.
The Occupational Health and Safety Act (No.85 of 1993) states that an employer has certain duties towards employees in terms of their safety. For example, workers on a building site need to wear safety hats and steel-tipped boots, or emergency medical staff need to wear latex gloves.
But did you know that a safe environment includes the psychological and physical safety of employees in respect of violence and threats of violence?
The Act requires employers to:
- provide and maintain a working environment that is safe and without risk to the health of their employees
- take reasonable steps to eliminate or mitigate any hazard or potential hazard to the safety of health of employees, before resorting to personal protective equipment.
As an employer, you could face civil actions from employees who are injured in the workplace – whether by faulty equipment, industrial accidents, harassment or violence.
