When Should I Contact the Threat Assessment Team?

Georgetown University community members are encouraged to contact the Director of Threat Assessment or any member of their campus’s threat assessment team if they hear about a threat of violence or notice other troubling behavior that makes them concerned about the potential for violence.  If you are unsure about whether to alert the team about a situation that concerns you, you can talk with a team member to better understand how the team would help before deciding what to do.  The earlier that the teams know about a troubling or threatening situation, the more quickly they can help to resolve the problem.

Some Examples of Violent or Threatening Behavior

Violent behavior includes, but is not limited to:

• Any physical assault, with or without weapons
• Behavior that a reasonable person would interpret as being potentially violent, such as throwing things, pounding on a desk or door, or destroying property
• Specific threats to inflict harm, such as a threat to shoot a named individual
• Use of any object to intimidate and/or attack another person

Threatening behavior includes, but is not limited to:

• Physical actions short of actual physical contact and/or injury, such as moving closer aggressively, waving arms or fists, yelling in an aggressive or threatening manner
• General oral or written threats (in any medium, including email and social media) to people or property, such as, “You better watch your back” or “I’ll get you” or “I’ll ruin your car”
• Threats made in a “joking” manner
• Stalking behavior
• Implicit threats, such as, “You’ll be sorry” or “This isn’t over yet”