If someone has threatened you, the right order of operations is: get somewhere safe, save every piece of evidence, report what happened to the police, and look into a protective order. What to do if someone threatens you depends on how immediate the danger is, but the first hours matter either way — the actions you take now shape every legal option you have later.
Get Safe First
If the person is physically near you, leave. Go somewhere public with other people around: a store, a neighbor’s house, a police station. Distance is the fastest way to reduce danger, and you can figure out the rest once you’re somewhere secure. If you can’t leave, lock yourself in a room and call 911.
Once you’re safer, tell someone you trust what happened. That isn’t only for support. It creates a witness who can later confirm your account and the timing. Block the person on your phone, email, and social media so they can’t keep contacting you. Check the locks on your doors and windows, and change any access codes the person might know.
If the threats are part of a pattern of domestic violence or stalking, the National Domestic Violence Hotline offers confidential help around the clock at 1-800-799-7233, or you can text START to 88788.1National Domestic Violence Hotline. Domestic Violence Support They can connect you with local shelters, legal aid, counseling, and safety planning even if you haven’t decided whether to involve the police.
Document Everything Before It Disappears
The strength of any police report, prosecution, or protective order petition rests almost entirely on the evidence you can produce. Start preserving it right away, before you decide what else to do.
Texts, Emails, Voicemails, and Social Media
Save every message. Take screenshots that show the sender’s name or username, the date and time, and the full content. Don’t crop or edit the images. For voicemails, use a second device to make an audio recording so you have a backup if the original gets deleted.
Courts increasingly scrutinize digital evidence because screenshots can be faked and metadata altered. Save the original files, not only the screenshots, and back everything up to cloud storage or a password-protected folder on a separate device. If the case escalates, an attorney or forensic specialist can help verify your records.
Verbal and In-Person Threats
Write down what happened as soon as you’re safe. Record the exact date, time, and location. Capture the person’s words as precisely as you can remember them, along with their tone and any gestures. If anyone else was there, get their names and contact information while the memory is fresh.
Do not delete messages, even ones that upset you. Deleting communications that later turn out to matter can hurt your credibility or be treated as destroying evidence. Keep your records in chronological order so they tell a clear story when you hand them to the police or a judge.
Report the Threat to the Police
If you think physical harm is imminent, call 911. Otherwise, call your local police department’s non-emergency line and file a report. Filing creates an official record, which matters even if officers don’t act immediately. The report establishes a timeline and can support a protective order petition or a prosecution later if the behavior escalates.
Bring everything you’ve documented: your written log, screenshots, saved messages, and any witness contact information. Give the officer as much detail as you can about the person — name, appearance, address, phone number, and your relationship to them. You’ll get a case number afterward. Keep it. A detective may follow up for more information or to interview witnesses, and police will decide whether the evidence supports charges, which can range from a misdemeanor to a felony depending on severity and jurisdiction.
If the Threat Came Online
Report threatening content directly to the platform in addition to calling police. Most major platforms have dedicated reporting tools for threats of violence and will often preserve the account data or remove the post.
For threats that cross state lines or involve serious danger, you can also file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.2Federal Bureau of Investigation. Internet Crime Complaint Center If the threat involves terrorism, report it through tips.fbi.gov instead.
When a Threat Is Actually a Crime
Not every angry remark is illegal, and knowing where the line sits helps you explain to police why what happened to you crosses it. The Supreme Court has defined criminal “true threats” as statements where the speaker communicates a serious intent to commit violence against a specific person or group.3Legal Information Institute. Virginia v Black A vague “you’ll be sorry” probably doesn’t qualify. “I’m coming to your house tomorrow at five to hurt you” almost certainly does.
The speaker doesn’t have to have actually meant to carry it out. In Counterman v. Colorado (2023), the Supreme Court held that prosecutors need only show the person acted with reckless disregard for whether their words would be taken as threatening.4Supreme Court of the United States. Counterman v Colorado If they consciously ignored a substantial risk that someone would read their words as a threat, that’s enough.5United States Courts. Facts and Case Summary – Counterman v Colorado
Federal law reaches threats that travel across state lines or through electronic channels. Under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c), transmitting a threat to injure someone through interstate or foreign commerce is a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 875 – Interstate Communications That covers phone calls, texts, emails, and social media messages that cross state lines, which most internet communications do. A separate federal stalking law, 18 U.S.C. § 2261A, targets people who use the mail, an interactive computer service, or other interstate tools to engage in a course of conduct that puts someone in reasonable fear of death or serious injury or causes substantial emotional distress.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261A – Stalking That one applies when the behavior is ongoing rather than a single incident, and it extends to threats against your immediate family and even pets or service animals.
State laws vary. Most states have their own threat or intimidation statutes, and many treat the offense as a misdemeanor or felony depending on circumstances. Threats involving a weapon, threats to kill, or threats against a public official usually carry harsher penalties.
Get a Protective Order
A protective order is a civil court order that legally bars a specific person from contacting you, approaching your home or workplace, or engaging in other threatening behavior. Violating one is a separate criminal offense, so police can arrest the person on the spot if they break its terms.
Filing and Same-Day Temporary Orders
The process starts with a petition filed at the courthouse in the county where you live. You fill out forms describing the threats, your relationship to the person, and why you fear for your safety. Filing fees for domestic violence protective orders are waived entirely in most jurisdictions, and fee waivers are widely available for other types too.
Based on your petition, a judge can issue a temporary order the same day if the situation looks urgent. Temporary orders typically last around two to three weeks, until a full hearing can be held.
The Hearing
Before the hearing, the person you filed against has to be formally served with the court papers. You can’t serve them yourself. Someone over 18 who isn’t involved in the case — a friend, a professional process server, or a law enforcement officer — has to deliver the documents. Many jurisdictions provide free service through law enforcement in protective order cases. If the person is actively avoiding service, courts can sometimes authorize service by publication or by mail.
At the hearing, the judge reviews your evidence, hears from both sides, and decides whether to issue a longer-term order, which can last anywhere from one to several years depending on jurisdiction and is usually renewable.
Firearm Consequences
A qualifying protective order triggers a federal firearm prohibition. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), a person subject to a protective order issued after a noticed hearing that restrains them from threatening or harassing an intimate partner or child cannot possess firearms or ammunition.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts Violating that is a federal crime punishable by up to ten years.9Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Protection Orders and Federal Firearms Prohibitions The Supreme Court upheld the law in United States v. Rahimi in 2024.10Supreme Court of the United States. United States v Rahimi The federal prohibition applies specifically to orders involving intimate partners or their children, not to all protective orders, though some states have broader rules that reach other categories.
If the Threat Happened at Work
If someone threatened you at your job or the threat is connected to work, your employer has legal obligations. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, employers must provide a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm.11Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSH Act of 1970 – Section 5 Duties Once an employer knows about threats, intimidation, or other warning signs, they are considered on notice and should put prevention measures in place, including security controls and training.12Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Workplace Violence – Enforcement
Report the threat to your supervisor and HR in writing so there’s a documented record. If the threat came from a coworker, your employer should separate you from that person while they investigate. If it came from a customer, client, or outsider, the employer should restrict that person’s access to the premises.
No federal law explicitly guarantees job-protected leave for threat or stalking victims, but the Family and Medical Leave Act may apply if the situation causes a serious health condition like psychological trauma, provided your employer has at least 50 employees and you qualify by tenure. About half of all states and the District of Columbia also have laws giving crime victims job-protected time off to attend court hearings, seek protective orders, or get medical care.
What Not to Do
Don’t retaliate. The urge to fight back or send a sharp message in return is understandable, and it is one of the worst things you can do. A threatening reply can get you charged, and the other side’s attorney will use it to argue the original threat was mutual conflict rather than one-sided intimidation. That alone can sink a protective order petition.
Don’t confront the person, in person or online. Confrontation escalates danger and produces nothing useful for your case. Don’t post about the situation on social media in a way that names the person or signals your legal plans. Anything public can be used against you in court, and warning the other party gives them time to prepare or vanish.
Don’t wait to see if it happens again. The most common regret is assuming a threat was empty and doing nothing until it got worse. Even if you’re not sure the threat was criminal, file the police report and start documenting. You can always choose later not to press charges. You cannot go back and build a record you never made.
Your Rights If the Case Moves Forward
If your case ends up in federal prosecution, the Crime Victims’ Rights Act gives you specific protections: the right to be reasonably protected from the accused, timely notice of court proceedings, the right to be heard at release and sentencing hearings, and the right to full restitution as provided by law.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 3771 – Crime Victims Rights You also have the right to be informed of any plea deal before it’s finalized. Most states have parallel victim-rights statutes for state prosecutions.
You are not just a witness in someone else’s case. If a prosecutor’s office isn’t keeping you updated, remind them of your rights under the statute and ask for a victim advocate, who can serve as your point of contact and help you work through the process.