2024 ITAC Agenda
Download the ITAC 2024 Flyer (PDF)
MAY 29th, 2024
8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Welcome / Housekeeping
9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
FBI BAU, Important findings across several post-attack analyses, SA Robyn Powell
Post-attack analyses and active shooter research conducted by the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit will be used to highlight key considerations for assessing the behavior, mindset, and capabilities of a person of concern. Discussions will include findings of note across multiple, prior acts of targeted violence and how those findings align with empirical research and anecdotal experience. Further, the presentation will address the implications of the findings for practitioners working in the field of targeted violence prevention. The presentation will offer prevention-oriented recommendations for the consideration of law enforcement personnel, threat assessment threat management professionals, educators, and mental health practitioners.
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Lunch
12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Extreme Overvalued Beliefs, Tahir Rahman, MD
Fixation is defined as any behavior that indicates an increasingly pathological preoccupation with a person or a cause. It typically causes deterioration of social and occupational functioning. An extreme overvalued belief is one that is shared by others in a person’s cultural, religious, or subcultural group. The belief is often relished, amplified, and defended by the possessor of the belief and should be differentiated from an obsession or delusion. The belief grows more dominant over time, more refined and more resilient to challenge. Thinking becomes simplistic, binary, and absolute. The individual has an intense emotional commitment to the belief and may carry out violent behavior in its service.
The historical foundations from the work of neuroscientist Carl Wernicke will be presented. This will be followed by cases involving targeted attacks (terrorism, assassinations, mass shootings, etc). Finally, there will be a discussion of how extreme overvalued beliefs develop and are accelerated through online interaction. This typically involves refinement of beliefs through psychological schemas which develop into extreme overvalued beliefs.
2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Break
2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Uvalde Mass Shooting – After Action and Lessons Learned, Abbey Abbondandolo
This presentation will focus on lessons learned from the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.  This will include a timeline of the events to level set, describe the initial response, lack of coordination and action and loss of momentum, victims of the incident, as well as recommendations from the investigation into Uvalde.
MAY 30th, 2024
8:30 a.m.
Welcome / Housekeeping
8:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
The Relevance of Cognitive, Gender, and Cultural Biases within Threat Assessment Management Processes and Team Dynamics, Kostas A. Katsavdakis, PhD, ABPP
The field of Threat Assessment and Management (TAM) has grown exponentially during the last twenty years. As we further evolve as a field and to maintain our standards of practice, we must attend to relevant biases that impact our threat assessment process and how these biases impact the operational knowledge of multi-disciplinary teams. In this presentation, we will focus on relevant cognitive, gender and cultural biases, including possible mitigation tactics, as they specifically apply to the process for the evaluation and management of threats. These include priming, blind side bias and cultural fallacy.
9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Break
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Indicators of violent extremists radicalizing to violence. FBI Field Intelligence Group, Sarah Carney
In more than 80 percent of violent extremist planned or executed attacks, Community Members observed indicators the violent extremist was radicalizing to violence; however, many of these warning signs were ignored, because the Community Member who observed them, was unable to recognize or articulate the concerning behavior as an indicator of radicalization. This training equips Community Members with the knowledge and skills to understand and recognize the signs of radicalization and mobilization, as well as how extremists target vulnerable individuals with their recruitment narratives.
12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Lunch
1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
A Different Animal: Assessing and Managing Domestic Violence Threat, Lynn Fairweather, MSW
The art of threat assessment and management helps to prevent targeted violence against society’s most protected VIPs, but how can that knowledge be applied to domestic abuse in workplaces and communities? In this 60-90 minute presentation, participants will learn how to evaluate and handle high-lethality cases using key threat assessment concepts and valuable insights gleaned from speaker Lynn Fairweather’s 30+ years of experience in violence prevention. Featured training topics include: understanding perpetrator mentality and motives, recognizing high-risk behaviors, interpreting threats, implementing target-hardening techniques, and developing effective intervention plans. Participants will leave with an enhanced understanding of the issue, essential risk identification skills, practical case management strategies, and new perspectives on how to prevent domestic violence attacks. This training is appropriate for all professionals who work with intimate partner abuse cases.
3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Mental Health and Trauma Concerns for First Responders and Other Threat Management
Professionals
Decades of research identifies that first responders and other threat management professionals experience significantly higher rates of mental health conditions including, but not limited to, suicide attempts and ideation, depression, PTSD, and vicarious trauma. This presentation will be framed by this and other data to address the unique challenges encountered by front-line professionals, explore in more depth the mental health and traumatic concerns correlated with the essential work of these professionals, and provide evidence-based interventions to mitigate and recover from these risks/consequences.