How to Anonymously Report Suspicious Behavior – Video with Jim Satterfield
We previously discussed how to identify behaviors of concern, but what action should someone take if they do indeed see a radical behavioral change in a colleague, employee or classmate? What’s the next step?
Organizations and schools of all sizes need a comprehensive violence prevention program. We have created a 9-step formula to mitigate violence that can be accessed via sharetheformula.com. Training people on behaviors of concern is the first step. The next step is providing employees, students, staff and others an anonymous reporting system by which they can report something they’ve seen. Behaviors of concern can be very mild; something that an employee or student normally would not report, therefore, we must make it easy for people to report these behaviors.
*See editor’s note for more information on #ShareTheFormula
Recently, Firestorm Founder, Jim Satterfield, sat down with Church Mutual Insurance Company and discussed anonymously reporting suspicious behavior.
Eighty percent of the time if someone has a violent intent, someone else knows. Sixty-seven percent of the time, two or more people know. We’ve seen in many cases, ‘see something say something’ fail because people don’t think it’s their responsibility to report the concern. Having an anonymous reporting platform (the ability to make a phone call, or send an email or text message, to share that there’s a suspicious behavior) is vital to a crisis prevention plan.
A school or workplace must have an anonymous reporting system that feeds into a central repository and is monitored by a trained individual. An anonymous reporting tool and central repository are easy pieces to implement, but are so critical to the success of the organization. Organizations must also monitor media and social media. In the social media aspect, students and employees are telegraphing their intent to harm, or they know that one of their peers is telegraphing their intent. We can identify these threats by monitoring social media. We’re beginning to utilize artificial intelligence tools to scrape through the social media and provide the early warning signs. These elements are part of the solution to preventing violence. All nine elements (found in our formula) must be implemented and in place to align with best practices. Leaving out one or more elements places schools and organizations at increased risk. Learn more about the formula here.
Related:
VIDEO: Jim Satterfield Discusses Identifying Behaviors of Concern
VIDEO: Jim Satterfield Discusses How to Identify and Handle Behaviors of Concern
Editor’s Note:
Firestorm was on the ground after the 2007 tragedy at Virginia Tech. Since then, it has been our goal to prevent similar incidents. We created the 9-step formula to stop the violence. Please visit www.sharetheformula.com to download the nine elements and help us #ShareTheFormula to prevent violence.
“What should we do now?” “What should we say?”