Observation and Visual Threat Detection
Threat Awareness for Law Enforcement
Learn a structured, repeatable process for establishing behavioral baselines in any location, identifying meaningful deviations, and recognizing pre-incident behavioral indicators during patrol, traffic stops, calls for service, and investigative encounters. Grounded in DoD-funded research and validated by social scientists.
Turning observation into a structured, professional skill
This training is designed for law enforcement professionals at all levels—federal, state, and local—who are responsible for observing, interacting with, and protecting the public.
Past Trainees Include:
Patrol Officers
Sheriff’s Deputies
School Resources Officers
Corrections Officers
Campus Police
Detectives
Dignitary Protection Team Members
After 300 participants completed this program:
-
96.7%
the program's content, activities, and assignments will assist them in their job.
-
97.0%
reporting being better prepared to use visual behaviors to identify a suspicious person.
-
96.7%
indicate the program provided new tools to help me articulate reasonable suspicion.
Trainee Testimonials
-
“The techniques are important to my mission because a lot of police work is speaking to people, reading people, reading body language, and non-verbal cues. This course covered all but speaking to people.”
-Police Officer and Task Force Officer
-
“For the street officer, this is a systematic way to heighten their awareness and provide them a tool to quickly establish norms for the event they are working. It also provides new skills for identifying threats when not evaluating a larger venue, but in a 1 on 1 with a subject they may encounter.”
-Law Enforcement Officer
-
We use these techniques every day, but many of us have never been able to articulate the “why” in what we see. This program gives us a way to describe and explain what it took us years to observe. This is going to be fantastic for our new officers, who will have the fortune of learning this without having to wait for years to experience it.”
-Training Sergeant, Sheriff’s Office
What you will learn
The class combines lecture material, interactive videos, and practical exercises. All participants receive a certificate of completion.
Systematically assess a behavioral baseline using the Behavioral Baseline Instrument (BBI)
Identify the roles, deviations, and objectives of those you are observing
Recognize pre-incident behaviors, including those associated with individuals carrying weapons or preparing for potential violence
Identify a Person of Interest (POI) and recognize a potential threat
Use commonly understood terminology to better articulate their actions
-
Duration: 8 hour (online) · 8 hours (instructor-led) + Refresher
Format: Self-paced (online) or in-person (instructor-led)
POST credit: Applicable toward POST or state in-service requirements (as appropriate)
Exam: Theory and practical exam — 80% average required to pass
Prerequisites: None
Starting at $299 per participant
Volume discounts, subscriptions, and instructor-led pricing available — enroll online or schedule a meeting with the Second Sight team to learn more about getting this program for your team.
Related Training
-
Threat Observation
This course equips learners with a research-validated, structured, repeatable observation process that strengthens systematic observation skills to identify behavioral threats. Participants will be able to distinguish benign behavior from deviations that may signal emerging concerns.
In-person and online versions of this course are available.
-
Threat Awareness in Practice
This is an online refresher course designed to help learners review key concepts and practice their active threat assessment skills. Access is limited to those who have completed the Threat Awareness training program.
-
Interview Planning and Credibility Assessment in Law Enforcement Investigations
A research-based, instructor-led training program that teaches interview planning, rapport-building, the strategic use of evidence, and credibility assessment for law enforcement intelligence and criminal investigations.
Frequently Asked Questions
8 hours + Refresher | Online and Instructor-Led | Law enforcement officers and agencies
-
Who is this program for?
This is our most intensive observation and visual threart detection program, designed specifically for law enforcement officers and agencies. It's built for professionals who regularly make consequential safety decisions in the field and need a structured, defensible observation process to support those decisions. -
Officers will be able to apply a structured, repeatable observation process to establish behavioral baselines, identify meaningful deviations, and make and articulate defensible field decisions, including documentation that can withstand supervisory and legal review.
-
This is a research-validated behavioral observation program designed specifically for law enforcement, not a general awareness or active shooter response course. It teaches a standardized process derived from how experienced law enforcement and military professionals observe and interpret behavior. It is not intuition-based or checklist-driven, but structured and teachable.
-
Threat Awareness for Law Enforcement is our most intensive observation and visual threat detection program for sworn law enforcement. It includes Threat Observation as its first component, building toward a comprehensive, research-validated process for establishing behavioral baselines, identifying meaningful deviations, and making defensible field decisions. It is followed by the Threat Awareness Refresher, recommended six months after completion.
-
Eight hours total, plus the online refresher training. For our online training, we strongly recommend distributing the program across multiple sessions, one to two hours per sitting over one to two weeks, rather than completing it in a single day. Pacing significantly improves retention and practical application.
-
Yes. In addition to the self-paced online format, the eight-hour program is available with a Second Sight instructor for organizations that want deeper integration and facilitated discussion.
-
Yes. We offer multi-license purchasing for agencies and provide monthly enrollment progress reports so administrators can track completion across their team
-
Yes. The Threat Awareness in Practice refresher training is included at no additional cost with the eight-hour program and is recommended six months after completion to support continued skill retention. The program can be purchased at a reduced cost without the refresher.