JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO –
Is the next active shooter lurking around your office?
The Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph Insider Threat Prevention program shines light on how to recognize threats and how to report. It is offered to JBSA employees and mission partners by the 502nd Security Forces Group.
“The FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit and the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center determined through invaluable case studies and research of multiple active shooter incidences that a significant number of active shooter events were preventable,” said Nick Blancaflor, JBSA Insider Threat Manager.
He began teaching prevention techniques to units earlier this year and hopes the training leads to vigilance and reporting.
“The briefing will hopefully spark interest in the base community and encourage people to have a proactive approach to combatting this issue,” said Samuel Figueroa, 502nd SFG future operations manager. “Most importantly, a well-informed person is a safer person and overall, it makes JBSA a hard target for this type of threat.”
The FBI determined that 77 percent of active shooters spent a week or longer planning their attack. Also, an average of four to five concerning behaviors over time were observable to others around the shooter, according to its study.
The most frequent observable behaviors were mental health issues, problematic interpersonal interactions and stating of violent intent.
“When something is festering it’s just like a water balloon you keep on putting water in … water and water and eventually on that last drip of water, it’s going to explode,” Blancaflor said. “It’s the same thing with an active shooter individual.”
The class also reviews barriers to reporting, such as fear of reprisal and fear of being wrong.
“I am a victim of workplace violence,” said Tracy Spencer, a JBSA-Randolph commissary supervisor. “I wanted to see if there were any new things that I can glean or be warned by.”
She attended the class with colleagues and said it left her with an uneasy feeling.
“The upsetting parts were the sheer normalcy of the people who became victims, how they never suspected that something so heinous could happen,” Spencer said.
The prevention class is not mandatory, but highly recommended by 502nd SFG.
“The biggest problem is how we can intervene,” Blancaflor said. “The employees are the first line of defense. They spend 8-10 hours a day with coworkers and need to know the signs.”
To report concerns or request a class, email 502SFG.S2.CAR@us.af.mil or anonymously call 210-652-5724.