Case In Point: Lessons for the Proactive Manager
Volume 17 Issue 12 | December 2025
We are rapidly coming to the end of 2025 and our seventeenth year of publication. I typically use this last column to remind our readers of the purpose of Case in Point. However, with recent events across the country, I wanted to focus on the topic of campus violence.
We’ve spent the last few months updating our processes for evaluating campus threats and instituting a new Behavioral Threat Assessment & Management (BTAM) Team. We implemented recommendations from an outside review of this process by Dr. Gene Deisinger and his team. The implementation here at AU was led by Scott Forehand, Director of Compliance Investigations & Security, who is retired from the FBI. I asked Scott to provide some practical suggestions for our readers on this topic.
We’ve spent the last few months updating our processes for evaluating campus threats and instituting a new Behavioral Threat Assessment & Management (BTAM) Team. We implemented recommendations from an outside review of this process by Dr. Gene Deisinger and his team. The implementation here at AU was led by Scott Forehand, Director of Compliance Investigations & Security, who is retired from the FBI. I asked Scott to provide some practical suggestions for our readers on this topic.
Recent tragedies at Utah State, Brown, MIT, and countless other institutions of higher learning have served as a painful reminder of how vulnerable the campus community is to acts of targeted violence. University leaders have a responsibility to ensure that students, faculty, and employees can learn and work in an environment free from acts of targeted violence. This can only be accomplished through a comprehensive safety and security strategy. Safety and security on a college campus, however, present unique challenges due to the complexity and size of a campus community. Colleges and universities are where controversial topics may – and should – be debated, and facilities are numerous and generally open to the public.
Comprehensive safety and security programs on a college campus should combine a variety of strategies. Some strategies focus on reactive techniques (active shooter response, “Run Hide Fight,” crisis management and communications, etc.), while others focus on physical security and “hardening” of targets (metal detectors, locked doors, visible security presence, etc.). Another critical component of a comprehensive safety and security program focuses on prevention of violence and is commonly referred to as behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM).
BTAM seeks to intervene and prevent targeted violence much earlier on the timeline than active shooter response. It is a model that has evolved over the past 25 years or so and has recently been implemented at Auburn University. A properly organized BTAM program focuses not on inherent traits or demographics of groups of people, but rather on observable behaviors that have been shown by the data to be precursor behaviors for perpetrators of targeted violence. BTAM focuses on assessment and management of potential threats, not punishment or discipline.
BTAM should be a multidisciplinary, comprehensive, holistic, and collaborative approach to identify behaviors of concern and to intervene early in a person’s pathway to violence to prevent violence from happening in the first place. But BTAM does not solely focus on potential perpetrators of violence. Another critical component of BTAM is to consider the impact on potential targets of violence and to provide resources and support to help targets feel – and actually be – safer on campus.
One of the dangers of not having a BTAM program is that reports of concerning behavior may be collected by a variety of departments and campus partners but not shared or analyzed as part of a larger picture. Missing this larger picture may lead to missing a picture of a person in need of intervention to prevent violence. BTAM serves as a collection point for “dots,” so that the dots may be connected and violence prevented if possible.
Comprehensive safety and security programs on a college campus should combine a variety of strategies. Some strategies focus on reactive techniques (active shooter response, “Run Hide Fight,” crisis management and communications, etc.), while others focus on physical security and “hardening” of targets (metal detectors, locked doors, visible security presence, etc.). Another critical component of a comprehensive safety and security program focuses on prevention of violence and is commonly referred to as behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM).
BTAM seeks to intervene and prevent targeted violence much earlier on the timeline than active shooter response. It is a model that has evolved over the past 25 years or so and has recently been implemented at Auburn University. A properly organized BTAM program focuses not on inherent traits or demographics of groups of people, but rather on observable behaviors that have been shown by the data to be precursor behaviors for perpetrators of targeted violence. BTAM focuses on assessment and management of potential threats, not punishment or discipline.
BTAM should be a multidisciplinary, comprehensive, holistic, and collaborative approach to identify behaviors of concern and to intervene early in a person’s pathway to violence to prevent violence from happening in the first place. But BTAM does not solely focus on potential perpetrators of violence. Another critical component of BTAM is to consider the impact on potential targets of violence and to provide resources and support to help targets feel – and actually be – safer on campus.
One of the dangers of not having a BTAM program is that reports of concerning behavior may be collected by a variety of departments and campus partners but not shared or analyzed as part of a larger picture. Missing this larger picture may lead to missing a picture of a person in need of intervention to prevent violence. BTAM serves as a collection point for “dots,” so that the dots may be connected and violence prevented if possible.
To learn more about Auburn University’s BTAM program, please contact Chris Hardman, Ph.D. at bch0047@auburn.edu.
Thank you, Scott! Of all the risks we face, ensuring the safety of our campuses is paramount. We hope you have a great holiday season and look forward to continuing our journey toward proactive risk management in 2026.
Kevin Robinson
Vice President
Institutional Compliance & Security
