Homeland Security comm. talks threat assessment teams

Feb. 14—PLATTSBURGH — New York State Homeland Security is working to implement its newly established Domestic Terrorism Prevention Unit in all 62 counties through threat assessment and management teams.

These teams, which will work to prevent "targeted violence" in the counties they reside in, are the state's response to the May 2022 domestic terror attack at a supermarket in Buffalo, state Homeland Security Commissioner Jackie Bray told the Press-Republican in a sit-down interview Feb. 9.

"Targeted violence is violence that is motivated by a grievance," Bray said, explaining the violence could be anything from terrorism to plenty of other lower level violent crimes.

"What we have learned over decades in law enforcement and in violence prevention is that the behavior of someone as they are on this path towards violence is predictable. The violence isn't necessarily predictable, the people aren't necessarily predictable, but if you can spot the behavior that is leading to violence, you can interrupt it before something happens."

COMMUNITY-BASED TEAMS

There are now 39 county-based teams established, with about 20 already taking cases, Bray said.

Typically, these teams are anchored by law enforcement, local school districts, major employers, social service and mental health leaders and sometimes faith-based leaders.

Clinton County's threat assessment and management team is headed by Maj. Nicholas Leon at the sheriff's department. The team should start meeting in the next few months, Bray said.

Clinton County Sheriff David Favro said in addition to the threat assessment and management teams being established, local law enforcement agencies in the tri-county area have had a special response team unit implemented since 2015.

TO INTERRUPT THREATS

Bray said the goal of the threat assessment and management teams is to avoid arrests when possible.

"Those teams can make arrests, if it gets there, but the whole goal here is to interrupt it and to intervene ahead of time."

She said a common trend they are seeing today involves online radicalization underpinned by "domestic ideologies."

"That is then leading toward this sort of toxic hate that can lead unfortunately, to violence. and the interruption there is often like, did the family get evicted recently and what does that kid need around them to stabilize or often is it about socialization?" Bray said.

"We, as humans, need to be in contact with each other. We need to be in community with each other. We need to have relationships that are sticky that pull us from some of our worst instincts, that pull us out of those rabbit holes and too many — particularly young men — are lacking that right now. So it's about what are those protective factors as well and how do we surround that individual with the things that can protect that individual from committing violence?"

CVPH EMERGENCY

Just days after Bray's interview, an example of a real-life situation these teams may encounter in their work happened here in Plattsburgh on Tuesday morning when Robert Thibodeau, 52, of Plattsburgh was arrested after local police received a call from a relative of his that he was on his way to University of Vermont Health Network — Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh and believed him to be in possession of loaded firearms.

The relative had told police that Thibodeau was recently terminated from the hospital and made comments about returning to harm individuals. Thibodeau was thankfully intercepted by local police agencies and apprehended before he got to the hospital.

DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYERS

Bray had said being fired from a job is a common grievance that may lead people to acts of violence.

She spoke about a situation in Monroe County where a worried major employer alerted the threat assessment management team there about a recently fired employee who was making threats.

"They were able to intervene in that case, appropriately without law enforcement, to help that person de-escalate, sort of, where they were headed. and that's really the hope," Bray said.

"We've had a case of ... someone who was trying to imitate or mimic the Tops shooting in Buffalo, and we were able to intervene, deescalate that case. The intent is to make sure that we're all sharing enough information — we don't violate HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), we don't violate FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) — ... to bring the right resources to bear to interrupt violence."

Part of the tri-county area's SRT responded to the close call with Thibodeau on Tuesday, Favro said.

"Their extensive training and their command capabilities certainly assisted all the other agencies in bringing this to a good resolve," he said.

'IT CAN HIT ANYWHERE'

He said the situation was proof these situations can happen anywhere — even Plattsburgh. He said this is exactly why they need the SRT and threat assessment and management teams.

"To think that in today's society we're met at times with confrontation with 'what do you need something like that for? It's Plattsburgh.' Well, as we saw yesterday, I'm hoping that that mentality totally dissipates, because it needs to," Favro said.

"Hats off to the commissioner of Homeland Security for her efforts in putting forth this program to go to all these communities and say, it can hit anywhere, wherever home is, it can hit and we certainly don't need it and we want to be prepared for it."

Because these threats and acts can happen "anywhere," Bray said each county's program is being equally funded.

"We are seeing domestic terrorism threats across the state," she said. "Some of our rural counties ... are certainly vulnerable and at risk to radicalization."

Email: cnewton@pressrepublican.com

Twitter: CarlySNewton