My place of worship went through a massive restructure during Covid. Most of the leadership including prayer leader were changed. So these experiences are two years ago and what I know of now.
Yes, 2 years ago we had a security team. I was a policy changing and consulting member of that team. All our names were known to the congregation so people knew who could be approached for help. We met once a month for board room meetings to talk about changes "on paper." And then we had follow up meetings that were principle based like going to a maneuver range or first aid. We did not, emphasis on not, focus solely on security. We also practiced things like fire drills, evacuations for tornados, how to deal with protestors (we had a lot of those for reasons I won't mention), first aid, and multiple ways to contact first responders in the event of an emergency. The town police chief always sat in on the board meetings. Because every week he provided 1-2 off duty officers (paid by congregation funds) to be at the primary entrance.
Now, the prayer leader is a firearms advocate, but has dissolved the security team. He also does not endorse anyone in the congregation to be armed, but does not enforce it with pat downs or metal detectors. I know of a few former team members who still carry, but do not do so publicly. As a result, many of the security measures suggested and implemented by my team were no longer followed. Even something simple like having only one entrance to the building are no longer followed. Sadly, as a direct result of poor security planning, violence against the center has gone up and active membership has gone to a third of what it was pre-Covid.
