Threat Assessment Fundamentals
How to evaluate a property the way a law-enforcement officer does.
What you'll learn
A practical course on conducting your own preliminary threat assessment. Built for staff, volunteers, and safety committees who want to think clearly about risk before something happens. Active-duty law enforcement instructors. Real-world scenarios. Insurance-defensible documentation patterns.
Course outline
What a threat assessment actually is (and isn't)
The difference between a vulnerability assessment, a threat assessment, and a risk assessment. Why most schools confuse all three.
The three phases: identify, evaluate, respond
How professional assessors work. The 'identify-evaluate-respond' framework that drives every credible assessment in the industry.
How to document what you see
The actual paperwork that makes an assessment defensible. Templates, photo conventions, language patterns to use and avoid.
Perimeter and approach analysis
Walk an exterior with the eyes of a hostile actor. Then walk it again with the eyes of a defender. The mental model shift that changes everything.
Interior flow: corridors, gathering points, lockdown zones
How attackers move through buildings. How to map your sightlines, blind spots, and lockdown geometry without architectural training.
Scenario: Catholic school side entrance
A walk-through scenario based on a real Rhode Island campus. Identify the gaps. Document the findings. Recommend the fixes.
Scenario: Parish parking lot after evening mass
Different threat profile than school day. Lighting, dispersal patterns, where assailants wait. How to harden against the actual risk.
Writing the executive summary
The page leadership actually reads. How to write a 1-page summary that drives action without inducing panic.
Next steps: when to call a professional
Knowing your limits. The thresholds at which you should bring in active-duty law enforcement, a licensed engineer, or your insurance carrier's loss-control team.
Completion: knowledge check + certificate
10-question scenario-based knowledge check. Pass to receive your OSPG Threat Assessment Fundamentals certificate.