Threat Assessment and Protective Intelligence

Floor Speech

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Mr. BABIN. Mr. Speaker, imagine if someone came up and introduced himself to you and said: ``Hi, I am Nick. I am a school shooter.'' According to those who knew him, Nikolas Cruz, the deranged Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School murderer, was known to do just that.

He attacked a neighbor's car. He shot their animals. He was known to vandalize and steal property. He made alarming social media posts and was expelled from school. There were multiple reports to local police and the FBI, and many other egregious red flags waving long before 17 innocent lives were taken and another 17 wounded on February 14, 2018. In the 7 years leading up to the shooting, police visited Cruz' home 39 times--incredibly.

Mr. Speaker, the Parkland shooting should have never happened. Every warning sign was there. They were not missed. Officials just failed to connect the dots.

I wish that I could say that this failure is unique to Parkland, but, sadly, it is not. Nearly 20 years ago, high school junior Brooks Brown came across a website where a fellow classmate threatened to kill him and his family. Brown's parents alerted the local police, who were already aware of concerning behaviors from that website's author and another involved student.

Within only a few months, these same students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, would murder 13 and wound 24 Columbine High School students in what has been called the first modern mass shooting. Again, the red flags were detected, but the appropriate steps were not taken.

This is not a new phenomenon. In 1966, Charles Whitman sought help from a psychiatrist at the University of Texas for ``overwhelming periods of hostility,'' including wanting to, ``go up in the tower . . . and start shooting people.'' Six months later, he would carry out his sick fantasy exactly as he described: 16 dead and 31 wounded.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, this list goes on and on: the Pulse nightclub, the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, the Boston Marathon, the Washington Navy Yard, the attack on Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in Tucson, Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Aurora theater, Virginia Tech, the Norwegian summer camp, West Nickel Mines Amish school, the Charleston church massacre, the attack on Republican Members of Congress at baseball practice, and even the YouTube and Tennessee Waffle House shooting just a few weeks ago.

Mr. Speaker, all of these horrifying events on this nonexhaustive list have something in common: every single one of these attacks was carried out after someone close to the killer observed and reported concerning behavior to the authorities.

The good news is there is something that we can do to fix this. These killers were under law enforcement's watch, but a proactive threat management structure, in large part, does not exist in the culture and fabric of contemporary law enforcement today.

For starters, our local law enforcement is simply undertrained, understaffed, underequipped, and have no integrated system in place to effectively identify and address these types of threats. The lack of information-sharing capabilities between the local, State, and Federal law enforcement, school officials, mental health professionals, social services, and other community-based organizations prevent these key players from implementing an effective intervention strategy directed at those who are on the pathway to violence.

For decades, there has been an effective system in place, pioneered by the Secret Service, that has successfully worked to protect our Presidents and other public figures. I believe that it is time to take a page out of the Secret Service's playbook and address this critical national security issue by implementing their established and proven threat management process for identifying, investigating, evaluating, and mitigating threats as a critical means to protecting our communities.

Currently, threat assessment and protective intelligence is used as a method for gathering and evaluating information about a person who may have the motive, intention, and capability to mount an attack against public figures. The Secret Service will gauge a potential threat, assess the vulnerability of the targeted individuals, and guide an intervention when necessary. This proactive process leaves no stone unturned.

This approach is entirely different from what the FBI and local law enforcement currently use because it compiles information from a variety of comprehensive sources to build out a threat assessment, and it works. Since the 1981 attempted assassination of President Reagan, nobody has even come close.

If this system works to protect the life of the President, elected officials, foreign dignitaries, and even celebrities, why couldn't this also work to protect our children and local communities?

Whether it is a shooting, a stabbing, a weaponized vehicle, or a bombing, mass casualty events are occurring more and more frequently at home and abroad. It is more important now than ever that we act.

Incorporating threat assessment and protective intelligence into all facets of law enforcement will save lives. If we can properly recognize the warnings and act, we can prevent targeted violence. It is time that we put an end to the politicized gun-grabbing rhetoric and start tackling the real root of this issue.

National Police Week

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Mr. BABIN.

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