The CEPOL activity 58/2014 “Crisis management and emergency planning: school shootings and amok Incidents” took place at the Police University College of Finland in Tampere on 1- 4 September 2014.
Twenty-eight participants from 25 Member States and one Associate Country took part in the course. The expert trainers of the course came from Finland, Belgium, Iceland and Sweden. The core theme of the course was to promote structured and evidence based approaches that focus on the prevention of severe and targeted violence and utilise multidisciplinary working practices.
Experts from the Police University College of Finland provided information about the basic concepts of structured risk/threat assessment and management that can be applied to different contexts in which such violence occurs. The concepts included the Pathway to Violence model and the Typology of Warning Behaviours as a way of conducting threat assessments based on research and evidence.
Other topics covered include:
- International information gathering to assist the police in carrying out threat assessments
- Presentation of a model to prevent AMOK-incidents, with particular focus on assessing and managing the threat of violence in schools
- MARAK, a structured risk assessment tool, in multiagency assessments and intervention in cases of severe and targeted domestic violence
- PATRIARCH, a structured risk assessment tool used to conduct a risk assessment and management plan, in cases in which there is a threat of honorary violence.
Theoretical and real life case studies provided participants with the opportunity to practice conducting risk and threat assessments.
On the last day of the course there was a plenary session during which the participants had an opportunity to ask questions and give feedback about the course. The participants also visited the College's Practice Town and the National Police Museum.
