028 - Barry Spodak and the birth of Behavior Threat Assessment Training

They tell you not to start a show with a "show stopper", so I saved this for Episode 2 of Season 2. Barry Spodak is a mostly-retired clinical specialist, senior consultant and trainer, whose simulation-based training and collaboration with researchers shaped behavioral threat assessment and protective intelligence for the U.S. Secret Service. The episode traces Spodak’s 40-year impact on generations of agents and officers: teaching them to interview people with mental illness, recognizing the ‘‘path to violence,’’ using realistic role-play simulations, and focusing on threat assessment and management to prevent targeted violence. Here is a link to the US Secret Service's Exceptional Case Study Project that started it all: https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/preventing-assassination-secret-service-exceptional-case-study-project