800.231.9106
Grab the Snake by the TALE:
Threat Assessment for Law Enforcement
"We know these mass violence events are not impulsive. They are meticulously planned. For many of these perpetrators, this act is very important; if not the most important event of their life."
- John Wyman, Chief of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit
Threat information rarely arrives as a complete, clear account. Investigators may receive a concerning message, a reported grievance, fixation on a target, a sudden behavioral change, unusual preparation, or a third-party concern. The challenge is to determine what those fragments mean, what must be verified, what information should be shared, and what action is justified.
Grab the Snake by the TALE gives law-enforcement personnel a practical framework for turning scattered information into disciplined threat-assessment work. Participants learn to recognize warning behavior, evaluate the context and credibility of information, connect indicators across people and systems, and select lawful, proportionate next steps. The course applies research and operational material involving adolescent and adult perpetrators, school and workplace violence, active assailant behavior, domestic terrorism, and homegrown violent extremism.
Our BTAM Team
OPERATIONAL EXPERTISE GROUNDED IN REAL EXPERIENCE
Threat Suppression's BTAM training is delivered by a multidisciplinary team with decades of combined experience in law enforcement, behavioral science, emergency response, and threat management. Our team is clinically led by Dr. Angelo Sambunaris, a 40-year practicing forensic psychiatrist and professor of neuropharmocodynamics. The team is operationally led by Dr. Mike Clumpner, who holds a PhD in homeland security and is an ATAP board-certified threat manager (CTM). Dr. Clumpner led the independent assessment of the 2021 Oxford High School mass shooting, translating findings into operational standards.
We don't teach BTAM from textbooks. We teach it because we have done it. Our instructors include:
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Law enforcement professionals with behavioral threat assessment and critical incident response experience, including officers who have managed active assailant incidents and campus threat situations
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Forensic psychiatrists who specialize in violence risk assessment, behavioral threat analysis, and the psychological pathways that lead to violence
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School administrators and security professionals who have led threat assessment teams, managed student crises, and coordinated emergency response in K-12 and higher education settings
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HR and workplace safety specialists experienced in recognizing concerning employee behavior, managing workplace violence prevention programs, and coordinating with law enforcement
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Emergency managers and incident commanders trained in multi-agency coordination and the operational dynamics of critical incidents
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Board certified threat managers (CTM), protection professionals (CPP and PSP), human resource managers (SHRM-CP), Clery Compliance Officers (CCO), and more.
This multidisciplinary composition matters because BTAM is not a single-discipline problem. A school threat assessment team needs administrators who understand the school environment, counselors who recognize psychological distress, law enforcement who understand threat escalation patterns, and security personnel who can implement safety measures. A workplace threat assessment team needs to include threat managers, legal, HR, investigators, security professionals, and mental health professionals. Our team reflects this operational reality.
We don't teach BTAM from textbooks. We teach it from experience. We teach it from incidents managed, threats assessed, teams coordinated, and lives protected. The 15 attacks prevented through organizations trained by Threat Suppression represent the real-world validation of this methodology.
The TALE Framework
T — Track the signal
Recognize concerning communications and behaviors, including grievances, fixation, leakage, target references, escalation, and changes from baseline. Preserve source, timing, context, and reporting details.
A — Assess the threat
Evaluate credibility, intent, capability, access, target specificity, preparation, time frame, protective factors, and signs of acceleration. Separate what is known from inference and uncertainty.
L — Link the information
Connect relevant people, locations, communications, online activity, prior incidents, capability indicators, associates, grievances, and possible reconnaissance. Look for convergence across information sources.
E — Engage and act
Select lawful, proportionate, operationally sound steps such as interviewing, corroborating, notifying, referring, protecting, disrupting, documenting, and reassessing. Threat assessment is an ongoing process, not a one-time label.
What the Course Covers
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Threat leakage, common communication channels, and the seven-step leakage pathway of warning behavior.
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Warning behaviors and pre-attack indicators, including fixation, identification, novel aggression, pathway behavior, last-resort behavior, and energy-burst behavior.
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Patterns and differences across adolescent active assailants, adult workplace offenders, domestic terrorists, and homegrown violent extremists.
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Grievance development, target selection, surveillance, capability development, preparation, and escalation.
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Threat-assessment team roles, activation triggers, investigative responsibilities, information sharing, documentation, and case management.
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Workplace, educational, and public-sector violence concerns, including bullying, harassment, stalking, domestic disputes, and employee conflict.
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The limits of profiling and single-factor explanations, including the need to assess evidence in context rather than rely on diagnosis, identity, or appearance.
Practical Application
Participants work through case material and structured decision points. They build threat-information timelines, separate facts from assumptions, identify information gaps, develop investigative questions, and explain why information does or does not support a credible threat concern. Exercises address digital information in context, cross-agency information sharing, decision documentation, and reassessment triggers. This course also provides attendees with an introduction to several different structured professional judgments (SPJs), including C-STAG, WAVR-21, TRAP-18, NCBIO-25, and B-SAFER.
Behavior-Based Assessment
TALE does not teach demographic, ideological, diagnostic, or appearance-based profiling. No single behavior proves that a person will commit violence. Sound assessment requires context, corroboration, investigative judgment, and legally appropriate action.
Intended Audience
The course is designed for criminal investigators and detectives, school resource officers, school law-enforcement investigators, intelligence analysts and fusion-center personnel, federal agents and task-force officers, threat-assessment coordinators, supervisors, and prosecutors or partner professionals who support threat investigations.
Format and Requirements
Recommended length: 16 hours of instructor-led training with case analysis and practical application.
Delivery: Suitable for agency, regional, federal, campus, and multi-agency audiences. A shorter executive, roll-call, or awareness version may be adapted, but it is not equivalent to the full program.
Instructional methods: Instructor presentation, research-informed discussion, case studies, guided investigative questions, threat-information timelines, and practical decision exercises.
Materials and room setup: Threat-assessment worksheets and investigative-question guides; classroom with computer, projector, and audio. Host policies, forms, protocols, or jurisdiction-specific examples may be incorporated.
Prerequisites: No specialized prerequisite. Participants should have a working understanding of criminal investigation, intelligence, school safety, or public-safety operations.
Class size: Set with the host based on the desired amount of case discussion and individual feedback.
REQUEST A QUOTE | DOWNLOAD COURSE DETAILS
To schedule this course for your agency, discuss customization options, or learn more about instructor qualifications and delivery format, please contact us.
Email: info@ThreatSuppression.com
Phone: 800.231.9106
Download the full course description (PDF) with detailed learning objectives, topic breakdown, and host requirements.
