WASHINGTON — The Secret Service, best known for protecting presidents and dignitaries, is leveraging its vast intelligence gathering, research capabilities and other tools to help prevent workplace violence.A new report seen by NBC News from the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center analyzed 50 cases of workplace violence over the past decade to seek common motivations, tactics and warning signs, including the shooting at the Capital Gazette in 2018 in Annapolis, Maryland, in which a gunman killed five employees.In the incidents under review, 119 were killed and 128 were injured.
The report was born of the center’s examination of mass attacks, which found most of the targeted locations were businesses.“Which is why we launched this initiative,” said Lina Alathari, who leads the threat assessment center.
“To look at how can we prevent targeted workplace violence.What is the thinking, behavior and circumstances of workplace attackers?” The threat assessment center was developed to study how other kinds of attacks could be prevented.
Officials use that knowledge and apply it in other situations, such as school shootings, mass attacks and now workplace violence.The report, expected to be released Wednesday, is intended to provide guidance to businesses, human resources officials, local law enforcement agencies and mental health professionals who mitigate workplace risks.Alathari said there are almost always warning signs before someone attacks.
While the reviewed cases do not suggest that attackers belong to any specific demographic group, they do share similar patterns.“Grievances are always the No.1 motive that might sort of trigger someone to carry out an attack,” Alathari said.
Retail and service businesses are the most frequently attacked, because the public often has easy access, followed by manufacturing and healthcare facilities.The connection between a targeted business and a perpetrator is typically direct and personal; 16 ...