US Attorney General William Barr issued a memo Wednesday calling for court-ordered counseling and supervision of potentially violent individuals in an effort to prevent mass shootings. The memo comes in response to a number of deadly acts of violence over the last few years.

In his statement, Barr directed both the Justice Department and the FBI to refine the “ability to identify, assess, and engage potential mass shooters before they strike.” Barr suggested that the FBI has faced difficulty in identifying domestic threats, in part because these threats often appear abruptly and have ambiguous indications of intent.

The memo acknowledged that many of the subjects of recent threat investigations have displayed symptoms of mental illness or substance abuse problems that affect their behavior. New tactics for prevention of violent acts would include “use of clinical psychologists, threat assessment professionals, intervention teams and community groups.” These tactics typically result in detention and court-ordered mental health treatment, substance abuse counseling, electronic monitoring, among other forms of supervised release.

There will be a training conference at the FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC, this December, addressing these and other new ideas for facing violent threats.