University teams focus on preventing campus violence

Threat assessment teams at Iowa's three regent universities investigate dozens reports of harassment, cyber bullying, unusual behavior or mental health issues each month, though much of what they discuss is not considered a high-level public threat.

The goal is early intervention, to prevent an escalation to violence or harm, threat assessment specialists at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa said. Responding to concerns from faculty, staff, students and the public and investigating even the perception of threat is a big part of what the teams do.

“It is a process, all the symptoms that may lead to a violent act,” Jane Caton, a threat assessment specialist with the UI's Threat Assessment Team, said. “I think that's what we're getting now, at the beginning of that process. That's a good thing.”

Threat assessment teams may go by different names and varying structures at each university, but they have common goals: use police, counselors and university specialists to investigate behaviors and situations that have the potential for violence.

The teams get referrals via emails, phone calls and face-to-face meetings with faculty, staff, students and even visitors to campus.

As part of a comprehensive review of safety and security policies at Iowa's public universities by the state Board of Regents after the Virginia Tech campus shootings in 2007, the UI, ISU and UNI tweaked or formalized their threat assessment procedures, some of which had been in place before the review.

The UI launched its threat assessment team in 2008; before that such cases were handled by UI police. ISU and UNI both had threat teams or similar groups in place before the regents' review, though the process has become more formalized in recent years.

It's hard to compare numbers or even track statistical history for the teams, officials said, because each university has a different system and the processes have changed over time, and the teams have been in place for varying durations. The UI has one team, for instance, while UNI has two and ISU has three.

Unlike the university police departments, which are required to make quarterly reports on crime numbers to the state Board of Regents, the threat assessment teams are not required to report to the regents, so there is no standardized tracking of incidents. The regents do require each university to have “comprehensive threat assessment and management services.”

UI officials, in response to an open records request about the threat team cases and history, would say only that the team has dealt with about 400 incidents since its inception in 2008.

UI officials said of those 400 cases, students were the subject of about 60 percent, and faculty, staff or visitors were the subject of about 40 percent, though officials said those numbers can vary considerably. The team does not keep a running tabulation of case categories that would give an indication of what types of cases or issues they see most. Also, many cases would involve “multiple categories of concern,” officials said.

ISU doesn't track the number of threat assessment cases handled, mostly due to lack of manpower, though ISU police Capt. Carrie Jacobs, who is responsible for threat assessment and management at ISU, estimated ISU has dealt with about 340 case referrals from 2008 to 2011, with the vast majority involving student issues.

“Not a single week goes by that we don't have someone that we discuss,” Jacobs said.

Reporting numbers also is difficult because the teams discuss some issues that don't rise to the level of tracking via an official investigation, UNI Director of Public Safety Dave Zarifis said. Having the word “threat” in the name may be a bit of a misnomer, he said, because most of what the teams deal with are more low-level cases.

“It could be an easy resolution ... quick fixes that we wouldn't necessarily look at opening a case on,” he said. “Not every case rises to the level of discipline or action.”

UNI has dealt with about 30 incidents since it changed its threat assessment system about a year ago, Zarifis said,

It's rare for incidents investigated by the teams to result in criminal charges, officials said. Most often they are handled in other ways, such as referrals to counseling or action through the dean of students office.

“Sometimes just talking de-escalates the situation,” Lt. Peter Berkson, threat assessment specialist with the UI Department of Public Safety, said. “The earlier we can intervene, the better it is for everyone. … In the process we may find people who just need help.”