IEMA hosts summit to help workplaces, schools, campuses and government facilities prevent violence

Focus on development of behavioral threat assessment teams

[October 24, 2013]  SPRINGFIELD -- A behavioral threat assessment summit on Nov. 6 in Normal will help employers, school and campus officials, and government agencies develop tools to assess threats or concerning behavior and to form behavioral threat assessment teams to help prevent violence. The summit will be from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Heartland Community College.

The summit is sponsored by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System, Heartland Community College and State Farm.

"We've seen violence far too many times in the workplace, in schools, on college campuses, and at military bases and government offices," said IEMA Director Jonathon Monken. "While we can't erase these tragic events, we can take the lessons learned and use them to educate key officials on how to prevent future tragedies."

Monken said investigations into violent events, such as the recent shootings at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., and last year at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., have found that concerns were raised about the perpetrator's behavior before the tragic actions occurred.

The summit will offer four separate training tracks, focusing on violence in the workplace, on campuses, in schools, and in military and governmental facilities. The presentations will educate officials on how to identify, investigate and assess situations and intervene to prevent attacks. Each track will focus on best practices from previous events and provide guidance for developing threat assessment teams specific to the participants' area of interest.

"This is important training that will help participants assess behavioral threats in institutions throughout Illinois," said Rob Widmer, president of Heartland Community College. "Heartland is committed to keeping its students, employees and community safe, and we are pleased to be part of this proactive safety effort being offered for our partners in central Illinois and beyond."

[Text from Illinois Emergency Management Agency file received from the Illinois Office of Communication and Information]