Last week, with my friend and associate Wayne Maxey, we had the opportunity to present at the Crisis Intervention Teams and Psychiatric Emergency Response Team’s conference in Sacramento California (CACITA). When we were deciding what we wish to present, there were moments of reflection about the length of time we’ve been working together to prevent violence. Often now this work is facilitated by Workplace Guardians.
Our history goes way back in 1996 when Wayne was an investigator for the District Attorney’s Office in San Diego, I was invited to join a group working on stalking by another police psychologist I had worked with during an internship with the San Diego Police Department Psychological Services. When the group met, pulled together by Assistant Dist. Atty. Kerry Wells, we all recognized the need for the type of stalking laws and the restraining orders that would be recorded. For example, if someone who were being pursued moved from San Francisco to San Diego, the restraining order would be available locally, not just exclusively in the prior city of residence.
By 1996, a multidisciplinary team came together to address these types of threat cases. The literature in this area was sparse. Our efforts were shared through presentations at the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP) annual conferences. The mental health component included a small group of colleagues, all participating in these monthly meetings at no charge. Included in this group were victim advocates and graduate students. If an officer or prosecutor had questions about a case, they would bring the alleged victim and present the details. As a multidisciplinary group including probation officers, Family Court Attorneys, and various agencies from both federal and local jurisdictions, we would address issues of victim safety and management. Further, we addressed the use of restraining orders, what might be included in a warrant, ways to interview and assess based on the understanding of the interpersonal dynamics and the degree of lethality present. We also surveyed in San Diego County mental health professionals to see how many of them had experienced being stalked or had treated individuals who are engaged in the unwanted pursuit of others.
Public education was seen to be an element of this mission. Law enforcement we communicated might intervene before a crime was committed based on threat. We presented at conferences, to public agencies, worked on legislation, created annual conferences in San Diego addressing these topics. Early speakers included Reid Meloy and Gavin De Becker. We applied concepts such as the psychological inevitability from the post atomic bomb think tanks. This item is included in the ATAP RAGE-V in Appendix A listed in the first column as sense of inevitability. We presented on threats to both law enforcement communities and other public entities. We thought recently about where we had come from, and both Wayne and I feel fortunate to be part of this evolution. It is worthwhile to realize that the tools we discovered or fashioned may still be useful. To this foundational work and case presentations, we added approaches to interviewing on firearms, strangulation, and the latest research in threat assessment.