AMES, Iowa--When first approached in 1993 by the chief of police of Iowa State University to help develop a threat assessment and management team, Gene Deisinger, who was then employed as a clinical psychologist at the university, had very few higher education models on which to base such an initiative. Deisinger and the Iowa State team turned to mental health crisis intervention models, corporate workplace violence and crisis management programs, as well as models developed by federal protective services, to put together their threat assessment and management team.

Deisinger, who is currently the deputy chief of police at Iowa State, has compiled his expertise on TAM team development into a new book, The Handbook for Campus Threat Assessment and Management Teams. The handbook, which was released in November and is co-authored by four individuals, is intended to help colleges and universities develop and implement an effective TAM team.

A founding principal of the handbook is the involvement of multiple departments within the university making up the TAM team. "We learned along the way the power and value of a multi-disciplinary perspective in our TAM to increase communication, and enhance collaboration and coordination across departments," Deisinger said. "What we saw early on, was that individual departments were doing a good job [addressing issues], but they were doing it well in isolation. When we looked at the bigger picture some departments were doing things that were at odds with other departments, so this collaboration allowed the same things to get done, just more efficiently and also more effectively."

Deisinger attributed Daniel O'Neill, president and CEO of Applied Risk Management, with getting the book published. O'Neill, who is a co-author of the handbook, was also involved in various studies of violence prevention and response practices in higher education settings. A significant part of his research and findings led him to promote the effectiveness of TAM teams. "We looked at 20 reports that were generated after the Virginia Tech shootings on campus violence and we evaluated the frequency of the recommendations," said O'Neill. "Eighty percent of the reports recommended having TAM teams ... It was the highest impact, lowest cost recommendation that came out of the reports and one of the only things campuses can do to effectively prevent violence." Disciplines involved in TAM teams are often mental health services, student affairs, human resources, the provost and safety and security members. Deisinger said the security department plays a critical role in the TAM team because "like most communities, law enforcement and security services are the only social services available 24/7 and often security has information about persons at risk that other people don't have access to," he said.

The book includes guiding principles along with a checklist to help universities develop their TAM team. "In higher education, there's a large consensus that TAM is a good idea, but there's an apprehension that they need to recreate the wheel," he said. "Threat assessment is not a new thing and there are a lot of models out there."

Deisinger said that overall it was important for this book to "spur discussion and facilitate the process of implementation. Often people are looking for a cookbook, but there's no one size fits all," he said. "The model that developed and evolved for Iowa may not be what fit for all universities, but the issue we want to raise in this book is the importance of an ongoing review process and continual improvement."