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Lewis County seeks to form a behavioral threat-assessment team under new domestic terrorism prevention plan
Summary
The county submitted a 2025 Domestic Terrorism Prevention Plan to the state and is working to establish a multidisciplinary Threat Assessment and Management (TAM) team to identify, assess and manage potential targeted-violence threats, the director of probation said.
Lewis County has submitted a 2025 Domestic Terrorism Prevention Plan to New York State's Domestic Terrorism Prevention Unit and is working to establish a local Threat Assessment and Management (TAM) team to identify and manage risks of targeted violence, Director of Probation Matthew Morrow told the Human Services Committee.
Morrow said the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Unit was created under Executive Order No. 18 following the May 14, 2022 mass attack in Buffalo and that New York counties are required to develop and maintain domestic terrorism prevention plans. The county's plan was submitted in June 2025 and includes provisions for developing a multidisciplinary TAM team to triage tips, assess risk and manage individuals who may be on a pathway toward targeted violence.
Morrow summarized the TAM model's four stages: identify, investigate/inquiry, assess and manage. He said the county is at the stage of forming the team and that he has been appointed the team leader. He described the intended composition as multidisciplinary and listed agencies and providers the county hopes to include: the New York State Police, Lewis County Sheriff's Office, village police departments, New York State Parole, the district attorney's office, county probation, community services, social services, emergency management, local behavioral-health providers (examples cited: Nurkle, Thrive, Pivot, Mobile Crisis, the Children's Home), Lewis County Health System, every school district (including BOCES), religious leaders, office for the aging, Fort Drum representation and larger local employers.
The presentation explained how the TAM process would handle tips ranging from immediate threats that require law enforcement response to community concerns with no clear criminal nexus that require multidisciplinary assessment and management. Morrow acknowledged information-sharing limitations caused by FERPA and HIPAA but noted exceptions exist for serious health or safety threats and said a TAM team can help reduce harmful information siloing.
Possible interventions discussed included immediate law-enforcement action when an attack is imminent; watchful waiting, third-party monitoring, referrals to treatment, administrative workplace or school actions, civil remedies (for example, extreme-risk protection orders), mental-health commitments, target-hardening measures and safety planning. Morrow also noted training and public outreach would be part of the county's approach and that the county has contracted with a vendor (Squad 9) to provide stakeholder training.
Morrow said the county will continue stakeholder outreach and expects to convene training sessions and finalize the team membership list in coming weeks.
