- Col. James Grady urges public vigilance after a deadly Michigan meetinghouse attack.
- Retired deputy chief Chris Bertram advises reporting suspicious behavior with actionable intelligence.
- Bertram emphasizes community awareness in preventing mass attacks by recognizing concerning behavior.
SALT LAKE CITY — At Monday's news conference in Michigan on the deadly shooting and fire at a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, police echoed a familiar refrain from law enforcement.
"While we are committed to keeping our community safe, we also need your help," said Col. James Grady, director of Michigan State Police. "We are asking our communities to stay vigilant, and if you see something suspicious, please contact local law enforcement or 911 immediately."
Grady offered statistics.
"Fifty-three percent of mass attacks leave a trail of clues leading up to them," he told reporters. "Two-thirds of mass attackers elicited behaviors that caused concerns."
What is concerning enough to be reported to the police?
Chris Bertram, a retired deputy police chief, said inflammatory political or religious statements may not be enough on their own to contact law enforcement.
"There are people that may say something but absolutely do not have the capacity to follow through on it," Bertram said during an interview with KSL-TV.
He said, however, a combination of factors may be enough to warrant a call to police.
"If the statement, the target and the capabilities are all there, we would consider that actionable intelligence or actionable information, and it has to be followed up on," Bertram said.
Bertram said that's generally the risk assessment law enforcement will make of the potential for a violent act, and they'll determine whether further action or monitoring is warranted.
According to Bertram, the current environment that has included violent acts carried out in public places makes seeing something and saying something to police as important as ever.
He said people generally know others around them the best, and a simple feeling sometimes can make all the difference in stopping a mass shooting or attack.
"We probably need to be paying more attention to what's going on around us, what people are saying, what people are doing," Bertram said. "If you're asking yourself, 'That seems very concerning, that behavior has changed or shifted and that's concerning to me,' they probably need to say something."
