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What Can your Church Security Team Legally Do?
Category: Getting Started
Understanding your legal requirements in your state.
July 2008
One of the concerns that many churches have when they look at establishing a Safety or Security Team is what are they legally permitted to do? Putting aside the well known separation of church and state limitations that exist, we all know that churches are required to follow both state and federal guidelines on many issues such as fire codes, employment regulations, food preparation standards, etc. When we look at the legal requirements, trying to understand what regulations apply to a church security team can be a very taxing experience.
Adding to the situation is the fact that the laws and regulations in two neighboring states can be vastly different. Some states have minimal regulations while others are very extensive. In some states a church team must be a “Safety Team” not a “Security Team”. Finally, being “paid” verses “volunteer” can also determine what regulation you operate under. To help understand the process that your church will need to embark on, I reviewed the regulations for private security for Ohio. The journey to try to understand the regulations for our state lead me to contact the Ohio Department of Public Safety as detailed below.
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