A Church Security Plan

I didn't realize what a hot topic this is until I Googled church security systems

You can also do a Google search on thehighroad.org like this church shooter site:thehighroad.org

Good luck in your quest.

We have a small church (250 or so) in the NC area that has had a few shooting incidents several years ago. We have several guys who have volunteered to watch the parking lot and walk around the buildings during the services. One has a CW permit and carries. I have a knife and a little martial arts background. We ALL have cell phones. We have no special training or preparation for it due to the very small size and "pickup" nature of the guarding. Basic strategy for us is to call the police. We also keep an eye out for any children or teenagers wandering around during the services and we function as greeters at the very start.

A very good basic principle to remember though is that due to the nature of church you really don't want any one person missing more than one service a week. I just do Wednesday nights for example. Try to get enough people to cover all the basic four services: Sunday School, Morning Service, Evening Service, and Mid-Week Prayer Meeting. You also want to make sure that you're selecting people who are mature enough to not simply do it as an excuse to hang around and talk with folks.

We're smaller probably than what you describe so I'm sure you'll be needing more personel. It might be a good idea to ask a police officer to come by off-duty or something and give your people an idea what good strategies would be and what their legal rights and abilities would be in various circumstances. The Christian Legal Association probably would also have a good information on this if you get in contact with them. They do a number of seminars around the country about the changing face of legal requirements for a church and I'm sure they'd have something on this. Good luck.

How do you identify those in your congregation who are candidates to be on the "security team"? What sort of "team" do you utilize for security?

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Start with people that are already active in the church to take leadership roles in security. Responsible people that are inclined to serve; elders, etc. Members who are in current or former Law Enforcement are an asset. Also ex military. Do a background check before allowing someone on security team. Felons can volunteer in a different ministry/dept.

What communication protocols/equipment do you utilize?

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Security team has radios and earsets and wear jackets/suits.

Do you lock your doors during service, and if so, how do you accommodate late arrivals and people coming-going?

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Never lock doors. Its probably a fire code violation, as well as impractical. People show up late, leave early, go to the bathroom during service, etc.

Do you train, and what sort of training do you do?

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Yes, role play confrontational scenarios. Have protocols in place, like not approaching suspicious subjects alone, etc. Mostly common sense. Local police depts will usually offer training.

What protocol do you have in place for dealing with "suspicious" people? etc...etc...etc

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Call it in on the radio, have back up, and discreetly observe.

I guess I'd call our church a med.-large one. We have ~700 people total attending two services.

We limit the number of doors that can be used to enter the facility and we have an usher posted at every entry door for the duration of both Sunday services and the Sunday school hour. The doors are actually locked and the usher politely opens the door and greets each person coming in.

If someone approaches the building carrying a weapon, the usher simply doesn't open the door. This will hopefully delay the shooter long enough for an armed parishioner to intervene.

There are several LEOs who carry at services and several CCW types who do as well (myself included). One of the pastors often does as well.

These actions are very simple to implement and though they won't help in every (not even most) scenarios, they do provide some protection.

We have a walkie-talkie type system, with a handset at each entrance, each Sunday school class room and the nursery. After a rash of cars getting looted in the parking lot, we often have a parking lot rover as well.

Our elders are also very concerned about having a child snatched at one of the several children's programs happening each week. This after a nearby church had some clown try to get a 9 year old boy to leave the building with him.

Having a non-custodial parent show up and take a child from the nursery is another concern. We now only allow the parent who actually checks the child into the nursery to pick them up, when we don't know the people.

Its probably a fire code violation

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not if it's an egress "crash door"

Don't trust the online legal sites for churches. Instead, talk to some actual lawyers in your area that deal with liability issues, among others. Our experience with the generic legal advisors is that they are risk-averse to a fault, and sometimes allow that risk aversion to convince themselves not to do the right thing.

Have you seen this website?

Tons of documents here.

http://churchsecuritymember.com/

Looks like they charge a little for the books and stuff but it appears to have what you are looking for.

Just remember, even after the Navy pounds the targets from the air and sea, nothing stops an aggressor except the grunt with the rifle. In other words, trained individuals will do far more than locked doors, alarms and peep holes. Supplement them? Yes! Replace them? Never!

We have a small church approx. 100. After the shootings in Colorado the deacons and pastor met and one deacon was put in charge of approaching members whom he knew were shooters and probably had CDWL's and to develop a security plan.

Now all doors except the main entrance are locked when the church service starts to prevent entrance, but still allow exit from inside, funneling any would be attacker into the foyer of the church. There are at least 4 of us who were approached about carrying in church, all sitting at different places through out the auditorium. A retired cop of 30+ yrs. and one of those who carries sits at the foyer entrance and routinely will walk through the church and through the parking lot during the service. Personally I sit in a locked sound room, hidden from view, in a perfect ambush spot on any would be attacker.

My folks church way back when (like 30+ years ago) had a pretty well developed security plan. It didn't include any armed guards but did include ushers stationed at all entrances that were not locked during all services. No cell phones back then. I think they were mostly worried about kids coming in and stealing coats out of the cloakrooms, or someone making off with the offering. The neighborhood was going downhill back then. Eventually the church was all but forced to move due to rapid growth and inability to expand in that location.

I understand there are several off duty police officers who are members and do carry with the blessing of the church that act as backups to the ushers stationed near the entrances during services.

No plan is perfect. At one time they had an armed, uniformed security guard who was stationed outside directing traffic on the street. Not quite sure how that worked as it was a public street. Havn't been by lately during a church service to see if he is still there.

Several of the agents in my office work security at local churches for $15/hour. They're in uniform and armed.

I head up our church security team. We all carry concealed with approval of the powers that be and are officially licensed to do so by the state. We are an officially recognized church group just like the deacons and elders. We printed a "handbook" which we handed out to the congregation and are officially known as the "Safety and security team". We ensure doors are locked and secure once church starts and we have members posted as "greeters" at the main entrance. We patrol the parking lots and interior of the church during services. We all stay below the radar, but are jsut conspicuous enough to be noticed by anyone watching the church. We all carry commo with earsets and travel in twos. Our handbook has been reviewed by the local fire department, police department, the elder board, secular counsel and our insurance company with their legal department as well. We even get a break on insurance for doing it all.
Overall, it's a pain sometimes making it a sustainable effort, but it's well worth it and the congregation truly appreciates it.
Good luck with your efforts!
SRT

WOW. This is really a big issue huh? just a note, you could supplement all of this[^] stuff with someone with a taser or rubber bullets.

P.S not trying to be juvenile or anything.

WOW. This is really a big issue huh? just a note, you could supplement all of this[^] stuff with someone with a taser or rubber bullets.

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As a practical matter, once you start getting into some of these kinds of devices, the training required goes up substantially. By and large we are talking about volunteers here.

shevrock said:

WOW. This is really a big issue huh? just a note, you could supplement all of this[^] stuff with someone with a taser or rubber bullets.

P.S not trying to be juvenile or anything.

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Yes, it is a big deal.

Being proactive is good.

eta
Rubber bullets? Why? Think a riot is going to start? Or was that just a poor attempt at humor?

We met today

Myself and a few other volunteer parishoners and the minister to discuss security (and I was not the one who started this). We discussed disaster planning in general and agreed to develop plans for both natural and man made disasters. We did bring up assault and the general agreement was how to deal with it once it happened rather than try to prevent it. *Trying to stop it is going to be a touchy subject but I got them thinking about it by suggesting that there might be some churchgoers that were armed (ccw).

I'm a longtime lurker on this message board - but after stumbling upon this topic I figured I may be able to help you.

I work in the Risk Management/Emergency Planning field. I recently finished a multi-month risk assessment for a Virginia religious organization. The assessment was mainly focused on schools, but also involved some churches as well. Included in our evaluations were physical properties of the facilities as well as the schools/churches plans (or lack thereof).

A few things I can recommend offhand for your situation include;

1) Create a crisis management plan. This should include any and all conceivable situations that may warrant action by the church - to include, fire, severe storms, unauthorized access, shooter scenario, bomb threats, etc...While an active shooter scenario would be very bad, its not the most likely incident to occur, First Aid/CPR/AED training is a must (especially when one considers the higher percentage of seniors attending many churches) Include relevant phone numbers, names and assigned duties of individuals, etc...For help creating this plan I recommended you look up some information on the Incident Command System (ICS). While it may seem a little much for just a church plan, it can be adjusted to function very well for such purposes, and it will facilitate cooperation with 1st responders.

2) Make sure there is open communication with local law enforcement and the fire Dept. They should have copies of the churches floor plan as well as the crisis management plan. If possible - include photos in the crisis management plan of the inside of the church. These could be of use to 1st responders in a variety of incidents.

3) The key to security at any facility is access control. Having someone at the entrance to a church, greeting people as they arrive provides a deterrent.

4) One of the greatest issues I identified in my work was fire hazards. Many churches lack storage space so things tend to accumulate, its definitely worthwhile to investigate storage rooms to ensure local fire code is followed.

I wish I could share some examples of the work I did to give you some inspiration, but I'm not sure contractually I can. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

In researching any improvements in mechanical security to a church facility, do not ignore the liability of fastening doors closed so that people inside are trapped. That is not a desireable outcome for a shooter scenario.

As a former commercial door hardware bidder and having 22 years in the USAR, IN/ORD/MP, one of the bigger aspects of church security is recognizing that the Building Code has priority.

"People" plans can and are flexible to the situation. Buildings aren't - and worse, they are often a hodgepodge of additions, meandering hallways, interconnected classrooms, and multilevel floors. Interconnecting walls may be required by fire code to have self-closing, self latching doors. Exterior doors for fire escape may not be barricaded or secured closed - no chains or deadbolts, ever.

Your church architect or local commercial door hardware vendor can be a big resource in securing unused doors without violating codes. Living and working in a metro of 250,000 and being one of two commercial hardware guys in town at the time, odds are nobody you know has the expertise. Get competent help. Most of the specialty equipment is low production, high abuse rated, heavy duty commercial grade, same as the back door of the local Mall or theatre. Please don't flinch at the pricing, and get competitive bids. The guiding rule here is, if it's available at a retail outlet, it's residential grade, and not fit for commercial use. If one of the deacons, etc says they can get that at Walmart, sorry, they shouldn't be on that committee. They don't know squat about it.

Please avoid the burglar alarm businesses that specialize in magnetic locks, etc. It often doesn't meet code because they don't know code, and none of it works if the power is off. Think electric ignition firearms with the potential of the battery being dead - would you use that as a primary weapon? Didn't think so.

Church keying is a long suffering abuse that is finally getting attention. While not part of a shooting scenario, thefts are rampant in churchs for sound gear, etc. Keys should be on a commercial keyway not available to the general public. It should not be possible to get one duplicated at your local Mart or hardware store. Treat them like your personal debit card and you won't have nearly as many problems.

The silver lining behind the cloud of church incidents is that church members are having to face the reality of their neighborhood around them, not 5,000 miles away in a foreign mission field. Placing the focus locally will do a great deal more for church security by opening discourse with the agnostic public about what the church is about, and why.

Some call it witnessing . . .

what to look for

Tirod:

Thanks for the post that is a step above the "residential" grade!

-Informative.

Crisis in Churches

What are some of your protocals for handling disturbances in your church


ETA: Given the presence of a current thread on the same topic, I have merged this new thread with the existing one.

lpl

Pray!?!?!


I'm Catholic, officially a member at one 'church' (parish) but attend several others depending upon schedules.

I am unaware of ANY protocol, plan or procedure at any of the many for any emergency. They are all required to place fire evacuation placards in conspicuous places; but there is little else. No drills, no security, no plan of action or escape beyond the fire exit placards.

I know of priests that own and enjoy firearms; at least one carries. Far more often they play golf or tennis or they are just too old to really care.

I think we depend on fear: most people (non-catholic) simply don't understand us very well--BTW most Catholics don't understand that much either. So people are fearful of entering the building; what with the incense and the holy water, candles, the sack clothe, frescoes and statuary depicting death in dozens of forms, renditions of hell, hey, even the stained glass depicts instruments of torture and then there is the scary looking, bloody dude 'nailed' to a cross of wood--not to mention all the guys in dresses; I can see why people fear Catholic churches.

So I guess it just comes down to prayer: pray you just survive entering the place, pray nobody even notices you. Don't be stupid or cause trouble, the floor is apt to open up and drop you straight into hell; pray it doesn't do that at random.

Well, that's my story and I neither ask nor tell any more.

I don't think my church has any plans. To explain what I mean, here in Michigan you can only carry your CCW in the church if the presiding official (pastor or board depending on church) allows it. I asked what their stance was, and they spent a couple of months debating and decided against allowing CCW in church. I think most members of the board are of the "it can't happen here" mindset. For their sakes I hope they're right.

Oddly enough quite a few churches in Colorado have a security plan. One of the reasons New Life went the way it did is because they went to a heightened security stance because they had a YWAM branch on their campus and the guy that hit them had hit YWAM Denver the night before.

The Foo said:

Be an atheist or an agnostic.

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Works for me.