Threat Incident Report

Company policy should require employees to report all threats or incidents of violent behavior which they observe or are informed about to the Designated Management Representative (DMR). The DMR should take the steps necessary to complete a threat incident report as quickly as possible, including private interviews of the victim(s) and witness(es). The report will be used by the Threat Management Team to assess the safety of the workplace, and to decide upon a plan of action. The following facts should be included in the threat incident report:

• Name of the threat-maker and his/her relationship to the company and to the recipient
• Name(s) of the victims or potential victims
• When and where the incident occurred
• What happened immediately prior to the incident
• The specific language of the threat
• Any physical conduct that would substantiate an intention to follow through on the threat
• How the threat-maker appeared (physically and emotionally)
• Names of others who were directly involved and any actions they took
• How the incident ended
• Names of witnesses
• What happened to the threat-maker after the incident
• What happened to the other employees directly involved after the incident
• Names of any supervisory staff involved and how they responded
• What event(s) triggered the incident
• Any history leading up to the incident
• The steps which have been taken to ensure that the threat will not be carried out
• Suggestions for preventing workplace violence in the future

Elements of the threat incident report and any subsequent actions relating to the incident should be recorded in a tracking system for use by the DMR and the Threat Management Team. Such systems range from simple card files to commercially available relational databases. The tracking system as well as all investigative files, should be kept secure and maintained separately from other records.