Author: First Preventers

Would you like to prevent (intervene, disrupt, stop) more incidents and tragedies BEFORE they occur? ✓

Have you ever experienced an incident or tragedy and found out afterward that people were aware of red flags and warning signs BEFORE the incident or tragedy occurred? ✓

Then eliminate your gaps, silos, and disconnects.

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Here are the facts… Evidence, research, post-incident reports, lessons learned, headlines, and other data reveals again and again that more than enough red flags and warning signs were observed and reported BEFORE nearly EVERY incident and tragedy.  BUT common gaps, silos, and disconnects kept the red flags and warning signs from being collected, shared, connected, and acted upon by the right people at the right times to intervene, disrupt, and prevent incidents and tragedies.  Sound familiar?

Have you had incidents or tragedies where you found out afterward that red flags and warning signs were observed by others BEFORE the incident or tragedy?

Do students know things that your Threat Assessment does not know?

Do teachers and staff know about at-risk individuals, red flags, and warning signs that your Threat Assessment Team does not know?

Do parents know about at-risk individuals, red flags, and warning signs that your Threat Assessment Team does not know about?

If you answered yes to the questions above, you validated the same gaps, silos, and disconnects that impacted other schools and communities.

Can you prevent incidents and tragedies if you do not know about them?

This is why you need the First Preventers Program to help you eliminate these dangerous gaps, silos, and disconnects before a tragedy or costly incident occurs.

More facts…  Evidence exposes the same common gaps, silos, and disconnects were responsible for failures to act on red flags and warning signs to prevent Columbine (1999) and September 11 (2001). Sadly, the same common gaps, silos, and disconnects still existed with Virginia Tech (2007), Fort Hood (2009 and 2014), Sandy Hook (2012), Pulse Night Club (2016), Parkland (2018), and thousands of other shootings, acts of violence, acts of abuse, suicides, overdoses, and numerous other incidents and tragedies that occur nearly every day.

To prevent more incidents and tragedies, organizations of all types and communities of all sizes must work together to immediately:

Eliminate common and dangerous Gaps

Eliminate common and dangerous Silos

Eliminate common and dangerous Disconnects

More facts… “Common Solutions” like the ones below are NOT effective and NOT designed to eliminate the common gaps, silos, and disconnects:

Security Cameras	No
Security Guards	No
Armed Guards/Personnel	No
Locks & Access Products	No
Alarms & Panic Buttons	No
Mass Notification Systems	No
Incident Reporting Options	No
Threat Assessment Teams	No
Hundreds of New Laws	No
Case Management Systems	No
Emergency Plans	No
Crisis Response Teams	No

Eliminating common and dangerous gaps, silos, and disconnects requires new strategies and solutions that are designed specifically to eliminate known gaps, silos, and disconnects in all stages of preventing.

Evidence is overwhelming that common and dangerous gaps, silos, and disconnects exist with collecting, sharing, and connecting the red flags and warning signs as well as with ongoing investigations, assessments (threat, behavior, mental health, etc.), interventions, monitoring, disrupting, collaborations, and numerous other intervention, disruption, and prevention efforts and actions.

Eliminating your common and dangerous gaps, silos, and disconnects is the best and only way to STOP incidents and tragedies BEFORE they occur.

DHS, the Federal Commission on Safe Schools, US Secret Service, and FBI have all cited that red flags almost always exist and identifying and acting on red flags is more effective at preventing incidents and tragedies than any security measure.

“The importance of detecting and addressing concerning behavior, thoughts, or statements cannot be overstated. In fact, preventing violence by detecting and addressing these red flags is more effective than any physical security measure.” –DHS 2018 School Safety Guide

Are you ready to start eliminating your dangerous gaps, silos, and disconnects and equipping your organization with the right tools and knowledge to prevent more incidents and tragedies? Reach out and connect with us today!

Attention Leaders,

When people are unaware of new solutions, people resort to conventional and status quo solutions. When looking at post-event reports from incidents of violence, it becomes clear that status quo solutions make it easy for at-risk individuals (often referred to as unstable, disconnected, even mentally ill) and other evil doers to commit more shootings and more acts of violence.

Unaware = Status Quo = More Shootings and More Violence

Scary question:

Have you ever wondered why and how so many unstable and at-risk individuals can so easily execute their violent and evil attacks in almost any school, higher education institution, health care organization, business and community? 

Scary answer:

Because pretty much anyone can defeat status quo solutions.

Scary facts: 

Status quo solutions have proven time and time again that they are not effective at reducing or preventing violence. Statistics reveal shootings, sexual abuse, suicides, bullying, drug overdoses, gang violence, workplace violence, homegrown violent extremist attacks, and numerous other acts of violence and evil are not being reduced, in fact, many acts of violence are increasing, and the costs and consequences are significantly increasing too.

What are examples of conventional and status quo solutions? 

Laws, Security Measures, and traditional First Responder Programs.

Lawmakers Making Laws and More Laws – In the USA, we have numerous longstanding laws that prohibit killing, abusing, and numerous other violent crimes, but bad guys and evil doers don’t follow or even care about laws. Even so, lawmakers continue to create more laws mandating more status quo solutions (see examples below).  Laws never have, and never will be, an effective solution to prevent violence because laws are words, not proactive intervention, disruption, and prevention actions.

Security Measures – Security measures include security cameras, security guards/officers, security alarms, security doors/locks, security/visitor access, security assessments and trainings, metal detectors, etc.

Security measures by design are last resort options designed to react and respond to a threat already at your organization, not prevent them from escalating and getting to your front door before attacking. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agrees and stated the following:

“The importance of detecting and addressing concerning behavior, thoughts, or statements cannot be overstated. In fact, preventing violence by detecting and addressing these red flags is more effective than any physical security measure.”

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All lawmakers, community leaders, and organizational decision-makers need to be aware of the research that exists, the findings from DHS, and they need to be aware that the next generation Prevention Platform already exists. The Prevention Platform provides proven and effective tools for collecting, sharing, assessing, collaborating, connecting, monitoring, intervening, disrupting, and preventing incidents and red flags– not more status quo security measures.

First Responder Programs – First Responders are brave, they are heroes and we need them, but First Responders are not First Preventers. In fact, First Responders, such as law enforcement, cannot respond or take action until there is a crime, which is almost always too late. First Responders are trained to respond and react, not intervene, disrupt, and prevent the initial escalation.

This why the next generation First Preventers Program is needed. The First Preventers Program offers proven strategies, trainings, and tools so individuals, organizations, and communities can more effectively intervene, disrupt, and prevent incidents and tragedies before they occur.  All lawmakers, community leaders, and organizational decision-makers need to be aware of these new solutions.

Lawmakers, community leaders, and organizational decision-makers are unaware because they don’t have time or have not made the time to do the research, review massive amounts of data, and review years of lessons learned from previous incidents and post-incident reports.  Unaware of what DHS has discovered.  Unaware of the First Preventers Program and First Preventers tools.

When lawmakers remain unaware, they make more laws supporting more status quo solutions.  Look at what lawmakers did after the 1999 massacre at Columbine, look at the laws created after the massacre at Parkland, and look at laws after the worst massacre ever (at this time) that took place in Las Vegas, we see more status quo security measures funding, more active shooter response funding, and more First Responders funding… but no First Preventers funding and no First Preventers tools funding.

When organization and community leaders are unaware, they implement more and more security measures – billions of dollars of security measures since 1999, yet unstable and at-risk individuals are still successfully executing their acts of violence and evil at schools, higher education institutions, health care institutions, organizations across all sectors, and in communities too.

You do not have to be unaware.    

Contact us to see and become aware of what is possible with next level solutions that are actually intervening, disrupting, and preventing incidents and tragedies today.

Thank you,

Rick Shaw

Founder, First Preventers

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