In June 2020, Police Chief published the article “Applying Counterterrorism Tools to Prevent Acts of Targeted Violence: Lessons Learned from the FBI’s Behavioral Threat Assessment Center.” The article argued that to prevent acts of targeted violence there needed to be better information sharing, coordination, and collaboration across all levels of government and between law enforcement and nontraditional partners, such as mental health, public defenders, and social services. Since June 2020, much has been done to move toward that objective. However, in the process, new challenges and opportunities for improvement have been identified. The threats are complex and evolving. Technology has accelerated this evolution and exploited weaknesses in the current systems and processes. The way law enforcement and its public safety counterparts counter and mitigate threats must continually evolve, as well.

It is the author’s current assessment that, if society wants to materially improve the ability to prevent acts of terrorism and targeted violence, then there must be more “buy-in” from state and local law enforcement, at all levels and more creative, focused leadership from state and local law enforcement leaders. To maximize meaningful change, law enforcement leaders would be best served by focusing their efforts on five, relatively resource-permissive, lines of effort, or pillars: (1) culture; (2) training; (3) relationships; (4) structure; and (5) process. The challenge, however, is the largely unstable foundation upon which these pillars currently stand.