Threats to Celebrities and Politicians in the US and the UK: Getting Mental Health Involved

This week an article in a Scottish newspaper provided an interesting overview of the Los Angeles Police Department's (LAPD) Threat Management Unit, and the work they do investigating and intervening with celebrity stalkers (click here for the article). It provides details on several well-known and fascinating stalking cases, including individuals who have stalked Steven Spielberg, Madonna, and Britney Spears. The article also mentions a similar, though much newer, unit in London that was created to investigate and intervene with stalkers and threateners of Britain's political leaders and members of the royal family. The unit, called the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, has studied thousands of cases of individuals who have written to British politicians or members of the royal family.

An earlier article on the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre described their research and investigative work in more detail, including research they have done on attacks against European politicians. This earlier article also offers summaries of some fascinating cases of individuals who have stalked and attacked European policitians and royalty - cases that are arguably lesser known in the US. The Fixated Threat Assessment Centre's research - and their investigative work - sound quite similar to that of the U.S. Secret Service, and in particular the Secret Service's research on assasinations and attacks on U.S. public figures, politicians and celebrities alike. (For more information on the Secret Service research, click here).

One fascinating aspect of the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre is that it is funded in part by Britain's Department of Health, largely because over three quarters of the cases studied involved significant mental illness. From the earlier article: "'This is an area where the interests of security and public health overlap,' [David] James [who co-directs the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre] says. 'We're not just providing protection: we're helping to find care and treatment for those whose lives are being destroyed by untreated mental illness.' Some of the patients first identified by FTAC, James says, are now leading 'functional and relatively normal' lives."

This quote echoes a little-known aspect of threat assessment work in the law enforcement arena - whether it's carried out by the LAPD, the US Secret Service, the UK's Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, or others: the primary goal of threat assessment is prevention. It's typically not about arrest or prosecution. Unless the person in question has already attacked, arrest and prosecution usually don't offer effective long-term preventive solutions (although arrest may be an important short-term solution when an attack appears imminent and the person in question needs to be contained). The sentences or punishments for issuing a threat, and even planning an attack, are often quite short. Instead, achieving long-term prevention typically means uncovering and addressing the underlying problems (like mental illness, multiple major losses, or desperation/suicide) that are driving the person's throughts and plans of violence in the first place. Having easy access to tools that can address those personal problems -- such as quality, affordable mental health care -- can make threat management far more effective. The UK format - involving the Department of Health with the work of the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre - is one worth watching. It may proved to be an effective model for mental health intervention in similar cases in the US, Canada, and other countries.