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An independent investigation reaches the same conclusion we’ve been pointing to for years.  WHAT THE INVESTIGATION FOUND  In March 2026, a man with a 2016 federal terrorism conviction attacked ROTC students at a Virginia university. Virginia’s Attorney General appointed independent counsel to investigate. Their conclusion: the university’s own threat assessment team was, in the investigators’ words, “an effective threat assessment infrastructure in place to assess risk.” The investigation further found that had the university known what was already known elsewhere, it is highly likely they would have removed him from campus before he ever attacked. Neither his federal probation officer, who had explicit authority to disclose the risk heRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Uncategorized

Rick Shaw, CEO and Founder of Awareity, is the recipient of the Excellence in Prevention Award for his transformative contributions to proactive threat prevention and information sharing across the homeland security enterprise. Through the creation and national deployment of the Awareity Platform, Rick has built one of the most effective pre-incident prevention systems in the country—empowering schools, government agencies, and private organizations to identify and act on early warning signs before tragedy strikes. For more than a decade, Rick has championed the need to close what he calls the “80% Gap”—the critical disconnect where warning signs exist but are not acted upon. His work has provided organizations withRead More →

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When tragedy strikes – a school shooting, a mass attack, or another act of evil – we always hear the same painful questions: How could this have been prevented? Why didn’t someone say something? Why weren’t the warning signs connected? The truth is, in nearly every case, the signs were there. Red flags were noticed. Concerning behaviors were seen. Family, friends, teachers, neighbors, law enforcement, mental health professionals, people on social media, and others observed/had pieces of the puzzle. But the pieces never reached the right hands in time. The “Forever Problems” We call this the forever problems: hundreds of people may see something, andRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Uncategorized

Incidents are increasing in numbers and “costs” (lives, futures, reputations, response, recovery, lawsuits, insurance, etc.) and most have the SAME RECURRING PROBLEMS. Facts reveal most incidents had pre-incident indicators, had numerous sources of information and had numerous resources who could have taken pre-incident prevention actions if they had been equipped to see the historical and the escalating pre-incident indicators that were scattered across silos.     Facts reveal most organizations implemented security solutions, access controls, incident reporting, law enforcement, threat assessment teams, and had other resources, but were NOT equipped to address the silos, blind spots, and many other recurring problems.   Recurring problems ARERead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Uncategorized

A Different and Safer Future Requires a Different Category of Solutions. A different and safer future exists. We know this is true thanks to early adopters who were tired of the status quo that was clearly not good enough as more and more innocent people no longer felt safe. They chose a different category of solutions for a safer future. Our goal is to share data and successes to accelerate your transformation from status quo to a different and safer future because it is the right thing to do to counter evildoers and to make sure no more innocent people – children and adults –Read More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Uncategorized

Are you ok with increasing challenges, increasing incidents, increasing numbers of at-risk individuals and increasing fears/concerns, or would you like to see a radically different solution to help you achieve a radically different future and safety? In less than 9 minutes this video will help you understand what is possible and what is needed based on tens of thousands of failures that continue to increase.Read More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Uncategorized

Symptoms are important warning signs that must be recognized and acted on before things get worse.  Symptoms reveal whether you have a cold, flu, covid, or other viruses and what actions to take next. Symptoms reveal what type of cancer you might have, and which immediate actions need to be taken. Symptoms also reveal why record levels of violence, suicides, overdoses, shootings, and other incidents are occurring in schools, colleges, workplaces, and communities.  Symptoms reveal why organizations and communities are overwhelmed and why they are facing more and more costly responses, long-term recoveries, liabilities, lawsuits, and numerous other unwanted consequences. Symptoms reveal things are gettingRead More →

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Getting Started What is Pre-Incident Prevention? Pre-Incident Prevention is the process of identifying Pre-Incident Indicators and then connecting and acting on them to address an escalating individual BEFORE an incident occurs. Why are Pre-Incident Prevention tools and training critically needed? According to the National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) within US Secret Service, ALL 180 attackers in 173 mass attacks exhibited “Pre-Incident Indicators” before the attacks, but communities lack appropriate tools and training to achieve Pre-Incident Prevention. I already have a reporting system in my community, I’m good right? Not quite! Collecting Pre-Incident Indicators from potentially hundreds of Community Sources from multiple reporting system options andRead More →

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If you are like me, keeping our children safe is a top priority, so I was very interested in reading what the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and the National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) found after studying 41 incidents of targeted violence in schools from 2008 to 2017. The USSS/NTAC study revealed several valuable lessons learned, including valuable findings regarding the prevention of targeted violence tragedies: The analysis suggests that many of these tragedies could have been prevented All attackers exhibited concerning behaviors. Most elicited concern from others and most communicated their intent to attack. The finding that ALL attackers exhibited concerning behaviors is huge becauseRead More →