Behavioral Science and the Secret Service Toward the Prevention of Assassination (1981) / Chapter Skim
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Chairman's Introduction
Chairman's Introduction
Pages 1-22
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From page 1... ...
One such study, a staff report prepared for the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, concluded: We are as yet unable to comprehend the individual and social forces at work sufficiently to be able to identify potential assassins in advance of their attacks. Characteristics common to assassins are shared by a large number of citizens.
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Hamburg, it was decided to convene a conference of behavioral scientists and clinicians to review some of the concerns of the Secret Service and explore ways behavioral science might help the Secret Service better cope with persons who threaten the president. In November 1980, after orientation by the Secret Service, a planning committee met to develop a conference agenda and to identify conference participants.
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The conferees addressed issues of dangerousness and the limits in the prediction of dangerousness, management of dangerous persons, legal and ethical aspects of managing threatening persons, improving relationships between the Secret Service and the mental health community, research opportunities to improve Secret Service operations, and Secret Service agent training and selection -- discussions that are detailed later in this report. The conferees also touched upon larger social issues, which are not under the control of the Secret Service but which nonetheless play a role in assassination: risk-taking behavior by the president or others protected by the Secret Service; the availability of the handgun as the concealable weapon of assassination; the current political climate, which is marked by polarized, highly emotional, single-issue antagonists who may express their extremism in violent confrontation; the repercussions of governmental cutbacks which may produce embittered, aggrieved persons who blame the president for their misfortune.
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By the Institute of Medicine: • supporting the efforts of the Secret Service to develop an effective research capacity • facilitating the efforts of the Service to establish contact with recognized specialists in behavioral science research and clinical psychiatric practice and education. By mental health practitioners: • discussing in their professional associations the clinical and ethical dilemmas involved in their duty to protect the president, when caring for a patient who has made threats against the president as part of his or her illness.
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All these persons deserve special thanks for their willingness to give of their knowledge and experience in an effort to enhance the work of the Secret Service in protecting our country's leaders. In addition, the success of this effort also reflects the dedication and contributions of special agent Robert Kyanko who provided primary liason with the Secret Service; and Fredric Solomon, Director of the IOM Division of Mental Health and Behavioral Medicine; Jane Takeuchi, IOM staff officer; and Mireille Mesias, administrative secretary.
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While some mentally ill persons may be more likely than "normals" to harm others or themselves, this is not the case for most of the mentally disturbed. Clinicians experienced with violent patients can often recognize behavioral indicators of imminent violence and suggest strategies for dealing with such persons, but conferees agreed that no one can make reliable long-term predictions as to whether and when a person might try to harm others or himself.
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Conferees had many practical suggestions for improving the yield of information from subjects during an interview; many of these are discussed in presentations and in papers. Conferees offered advice not only about techniques appropriate for interviewing disturbed and potentially dangerous persons, but also about the composition of interview teams, the location of interviews, the frequency of interviewing, interview format, and the times when Secret Service subjects might be interviewed to maximize information yielded.
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From page 9... ...
As a next step, conferees suggested that an independent research advisory board be created to work with the Secret Service and its consultants in developing behavioral science research priorities, deciding on which of the research suggestions in this conference summary the Service should implement, evaluating incoming research proposals, examining ongoing research in other federal agencies and private institutions in areas relevant to the Secret Service mission, establishing relationships with the scientific and clinical community, and otherwise providing advice and consultation pertinent to the development of a behavioral research capability within the Secret Service itself.
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Others thought it preferable for the Secret Service to consult with a variety of mental health institutions and professionals on an informal and ad hoc basis. In the area of training, conferees agreed that Secret Service agents need a greater understanding of psychopathology and its various manifestations, exposure to a wide range of mentally disturbed persons, instruction in interviewing and management techniques appropriate for use with the mentally ill, and greater familiarity with mental health facilities and personnel.
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A more appropriate strategy might be to try to arrange for continuing and thorough out-patient psychiatric care. While almost all intervention strategies run the risk of violating individual civil liberties -- especially when no prosecutable offense has been committed -- conferees encouraged the Secret Service to explore and use management techniques that are unobstrusive, wherever possible, and in all cases to apply the principle of "least restrictive alternatives" in selecting particular management techniques.
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From page 13... ...
There are many factors that give me concern: the instant availability of lethal weapons, the mobility of potential assassins, the media-facilitated contagion of hatred and of formulas for * President, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, 1975-1980.
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From page 14... ...
There may have been brief intervals when presidents and even presidential candidates have met what we might properly call a presidential standard of behavior -- i.e., behavior that is cautious and prudent in light of the knowledge of the high risks to which such * "Learning from Experience, the Secret Service, and Controlled Experimentation," included in this conference summary, page 113.
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So, in addition to the intrinsic value of this occasion, it may set in motion some long-term relationship of value to American society. We are dealing here with a set of functions in a democratic society that are crucial to the effective functioning of the electorate and the maintenance of core democratic values.
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S Knight Director United States Secret Service Washington, D
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I look out over this group and see the current positions you hold, the various credentials you bring to this meeting, the contributions you have made to your disciplines; and I have that same feeling of awe and I guess expectation as to what can be accomplished for the Secret Service in the next two days. Last November when we addressed the members of the planning committee for the workshop, my predecessor, Assistant Director Bob Burke, presented a list of questions and issues for consideration and study.
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Director Knight and Special Agent-in-Charge of the Intelligence Division Ed Walsh talked about the problems in predicting human behavior, and the attendant conceptualizations, interpretations, assumptions, and self-imposed constraints. We all know it is not infrequent that very complex problems are perceived initially as insoluble, but often with just a turn of mind or a fresh perception or a new way of asking a question, we can shed considerable light on those apparently insoluble problems.
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From page 21... ...
Upon this gifted age, in its dark hour, Rains from the sky a meteoric shower Of facts .
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