Angel Gray explains behavioral threat assessment
Carolina’s first director of threat assessment and management talks about new ways to make Carolina safer.
UNC-Chapel Hill now has a behavioral threat assessment and management team dedicated to preventing acts of targeted violence. Angel Gray leads that effort as Carolina’s first director of threat assessment and management. She was the Durham County assistant district attorney and served as legal counsel for the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, where she helped establish its behavioral threat assessment unit.
The Well spoke with Gray to learn more about this new office and its work.
What is behavioral threat assessment and management?
It’s a systematic, fact-based approach to identify people who may be thinking about using violence as a solution to a problem. This is not about predicting who is going to engage in violence. This is about prevention.
It’s based on research done by the Secret Service, the FBI and its behavioral analysis unit. The Secret Service has used it for years to protect the president and others. That research led to the establishment of behavioral threat assessment and the process of identifying someone and assessing them for their risk of committing a targeted act of violence. From there, our team develops processes to intervene or manage that person to address their risk factors, enhance the protective factors they have and, hopefully, prevent them from using violence.
Why do we need this team at Carolina?
Research has shown that you need a multidisciplinary team to execute it, not just one person. It’s important that you have people from different backgrounds and experiences at the table because we’re trying to take a holistic view of the person. Also, behaviors can be interpreted differently in different cultures. This is particularly crucial at a college campus like UNC-Chapel Hill, where we have students, faculty and staff with so many different backgrounds and life experiences.
Who is a part of this team? What kind of training do they go through?
We have established a large threat assessment team, with representatives from my office, Equal Opportunity and Compliance/Title IX, Student Affairs, UNC Police, Campus Safety and Human Resources. Our policy also allows me to add other members to the team as needed.
Every member of the team goes through basic training for behavioral threat assessment and learns how to recognize concerning behaviors, risk factors and protective factors associated with targeted violence.
What are examples of concerning behaviors?
We tell people to look out for aggressive or violent behavior, such as physical assaults or verbal threats. We want people to report interpersonal and dating violence and stalking. We also look out for feelings of hopelessness and suicidality and preoccupations with firearms or other weapons and with other violent attackers.
How will this new policy affect people at Carolina and beyond?
First and foremost, the goal of this policy is that everybody at Carolina feels safer. We’re not here to surveil or profile people or predict their actions. We’re here to be a place where people feel comfortable speaking up if they see something concerning. If you see something, say something. Report it through EOC/Title IX, UNC Police, the ethics line or a care referral through the dean of students.