Church Security & Places of Worship

How often do you go into your church and see someone just drop a bag on a seat and walk away?

There are two problems with people doing this:

First, this creates an atmosphere for theft to occur within the facilities. Criminals know that this type of activity takes place at churches. In general people tend to have a false sense of security while attending places of worship. Criminals will exploit that false sense of security and use it as an opportunity to steal from those who have positioned themselves in a vulnerable spot. You have to imangine these crimes are not just a HEY GIVE ME YOUR MONEY but a vicious desperate “animal” or pack with nothing to loose!

The second problem with this is related to the potential threat of a hazardous device being left behind in the unattended bag. Those of you who are not in the law enforcement, military or security industry may read this and think that the threat is not real, I would argue that the exact opposite is true. Like a local Police Sergeant in Orlando found out after stomping on a backpack left under a PCI patrol car. Places of Worship serve as a target for multiple different types of crimes. Both domestic and international terrorism are both threats that should be considered within our congregations. Some churches pose a threat simply based on their size and attraction, while others may be focused on the content of what is being taught from the facility and we concentrate on being proactive to stop incidents versus simply respond to them. Prevention was the old time Police patrols which has been long gone as you can see by the amount of calls for service via radio and dispatched calls via in car computers. PCI has combatted this with taking back the night with stopping the crimes before they happen, which is our Motto. The calls for a suspicious person in you community or place of business may take local Law Enforcement hours to never responding based on level of calls coming in, having PCI in your community is seconds to already on it in most cases, this keeps crime from occurring because they get gone before they have time to start. This also spreads via text and cell calls to other criminals in your area like wild fire to go to a weaker target.

CHURCH SHOOTINGS
March 8th 2009 – Terry J. Sedlacek guns down a pastor mid-sermon and then stabbed two churchgoers in Illinois

July 27th 2008 – Jim D. Adkisson, 58 opened fire during a children’s play at church, shooting eight people with a 12-gauge shotgun, in Knoxville TN

November 23rd, 2008 – A gunman invaded a small church in Clifton, N.J., during services on Sunday and killed his estranged wife and critically wounded two other people with shots to the head

August 12th, 2007 – A lone gunman opens fire in a Missouri church, killing a pastor and two others

May 20, 2007 – A standoff between police and a suspect in the shootings of three people in a Moscow, Idaho, Presbyterian Church ended with three dead, including one police officer.

May 21, 2006 – Louisiana. Four were killed by a man at Jesus Christ Church

Feb. 26, 2006 – Michigan. Two people were killed at Zion Hope Missionary Baptist Church by a man who reportedly went to the church looking for his girlfriend. He later killed himself.