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Hi, Jack.

You already know my story, but I'll share it with anyone else. In December 2005, we had 11 cars broken into during a Wednesday evening service. It was pretty hard on those who were robbed. We started a parking area watch after this. In January 2006, The Alabama State Baptist Association offered a seminar on Church Security. I volunteered to go, and used this information, along with what JackJ (from this site) had provided for me.

We are a relatively small/medium church, averaging around 320 attendance on Sunday a.m. But we have had a few incidents where having people in the right place has prevented more serious consequences.

We have no LE members. I'm former USAF, and the closest thing to a security expert we have. I've taken on the duties (emergency coordinator is the title they hung on me) of making sure someone is on duty during service. We do have several medical trained members, including a Fire-medic, so this isn't an area of real concern.

Glen said:

Hi Scott,

Thanks for stepping up and doing church security for your fellowship. Its just a great idea to have someone stepping in the gap for church security, but than again, I may be biased.

G

A while back, I was patrolling on a Sunday morning during the worship service and noticed a few teenaged boys in the parking lot going up and down the aisles looking into cars. I got on the radio to notify fellow team members. Within a matter of less than a minute, the boys were surrounded by the security team. Turns out they were some of our own youth that were goofing off, but they were sure surprised by our response and the word got around.

We started at the request of one of our elders who had participated in a forum conducted by the district attorney for some of the local churches. We asked all members who were intested to participate in a couple of planning exercises where we identified the risks that we recognized. We also polled all members for medical training and have provided the ushers with a list of qualified first responders, first aiders, nurses and doctors. We then had an expert in church security come in and do a risk assessment along with 2 days of basic training for anyone in the congregation who were interested. (We had 30 people who faithfully attended both days- pretty good for a church of about 125! Thankfully, many were folks involved as ushers and greeters so they recieved the threat recognition training.) Now in the process of selecting team members. Immediately after the risk assesment, my co-leader and myself recognized we had to do some things immediately so right now, we and one other member who has had LE experience are the team. We have each purchased radios and station ourselves in the parking lot, in the foyer and one in the auditorium. Early detection and communication is our focus at this point and we are working on our procedures for lock down, evacuation, etc. We are using materials from this site as well as others. We are always looking for training material that is appropriate for a church security team.