Issue link: https://securitytechnologyexecutive.epubxp.com/i/656764
February/March 2016 • SECURITY TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVE 37 www.SecurityInfoWatch.com witnesses involved, speaking with faculty/ friends, and reviewing social media, or con- ducting a formal law enforcement investiga- tion. Keeping track of the steps taken during this investigation and coordinating all actions and communications between team members is where TIPS delivers valuable advantages. No longer do threat assessment teams need to find a time/place for everyone to gather, but team members can easily login and docu- ment their findings and case notes, set tasks for other team members, etc. and all other team members can review the investigation and ongoing updates in real-time, rather than waiting for their next meeting. All actions are date/time stamped, providing legal-ready documentation and accountability, while also ensuring appropriate steps are taken to most effectively intervene and prevent a situation from escalating into something much worse, more expensive and more embarrassing. Equipping your threat assessment team to communicate effectively utilizing a secure centralized platform is critical in connecting the dots. Lessons learned reveal over and over how organizations failed to connect the dots and failed to prevent preventable incidents and tragedies. A centralized plat- form like TIPS allows all threat assessment team members to search related incident reports involving one or more individuals, review previous reports, investigations, and actions, and assess a more comprehensive overall pattern of behavior. As we learned from the tra g ic Virg inia Tech massacre, m a ny i n d i v i d u a l s o b s e r v e d c o n c e r n i n g behaviors with the student who carried out the attack, but these concerning behaviors were not routed to one central place where multiple reports could be connected and the seriousness of the threat(s) could have been accurately identified. R appahannock Community College's VP for Administration, Kim McManus, shared, "We know that even though we are a smaller community college, we are not immune to threat. TIPS has helped our threat assess- ment team establish effective procedures When an incident report concerning a threat on or to campus is submitted, the first task of a threat assessment team is to collect as much information as possible to determine the potential for risk. Threat cases each require an individualized approach and the more information that can be gathered the better. Image Courtesy of BigStock.com