Churches

Well, we've been saying in professional protection circles for years now that attacks on churches were coming. The rest of you can catch up now ~ they're here. Too many people have thought for way too long that bad-guys would never be mean enough to attack a church. Schools: yes. Malls: yes. Bars: yes. Synagogues: yes. Churches: nope. Churches with schools: nope. Nuh-uh, no way.

Shortly after 9-11-01, I contacted some large churches in my area to try to help those leaders see the coming threat ~ and there was almost no interest in the subject. Be that as it may, I'm going to use the 12-09-07 Colorado shootings, which were planned and carried out by a young man who came to hate Christians, as the self-declared imprimatur by which to offer some suggestions to church leadership.

Was Matthew Murray an anomaly? In a way: yes. But, if you read the right sources, you'll find there are many thousands of  people right here in this country today who hate Christians… oh, and Jews, too.

I'm talking directly to pastors, elders, and lay staff; too many of who are still sitting around believing it'll never happen to their people because "it can't happen here." You need a security team: men and women devoted to protecting your congregation, the innocents who trust you with their souls and, given Colorado and Beslan and a hundred other attacks, their lives.

There should be at least two guards, and probably more, depending on the size of the property, buildings, and congregation. Your security team should be church volunteers under the leadership and instruction of a paid professional, not a pastor who years back paid his way through seminary by being an unarmed security guard or who "has a heart for people."

The hired, dedicated team leader does recon, assessment, intel, prep and training work during the day and protective work when the church has services or class of some sort, but especially on Wednesday and Sunday, when most Christian churches get together. It may be appropriate for him to serve as a bodyguard for senior leaders from time to time.

The team should be church members because they'll be personally accountable for their commitment and performance. They know what and who looks strange, out of place; they know the campus and building layout, the exits and entrances. As people, they're a known quantity; so maybe background checks won't be necessary. They need to be screened, but the most important feature of that screening process is to be sure everyone on the team is willing to take the life of another, without hesitation, if that should become necessary.

They should not be in uniform but should wear comfortable, neat, clean clothes with one common, easily-recognizable identifier. I'm not going into detail on that issue here. The guards should be armed with pistols, not revolvers, of their choice, with which they are familiar, comfortable, and well-trained. Personally, I think 9mm DAOs are best, but that's just me.

If you go for security guards from the provider down the street, you'll regret it. Believe me. They won't do background checks to the depth you need on the guards they provide. They'll hire anybody to fill a uniform, give them the minimum state-required training (if your state even requires training), and put them at your site whether you think they're a good fit or not.  Then they'll send you a bill.

Since you're going to have armed guards; that's another reason to not waste your time a/o money on contract guards. As noted in another post, many security companies that offer armed guards will take from you the higher fee associated with that presumed higher degree of safety and then give the guards they send you clear but unwritten orders to not unholster their weapon, no matter what. This is done to avoid the cost of fully and properly training their guards, providing them with reliable weapons of appropriate caliber, the additional insurance premium and licensing costs.

Next time you see an armored car guard, look at the pistol in his or her holster. I'll bet you money it's a standard Smith & Wesson .38 caliber 6-shot revolver loaded with hard-ball ammo. Maybe it's been 'up-graded' with rubber grips, but I can almost guarantee that's what you'll see them carrying. But when's the last time bad-guys robbed an armored car using .38s? Guards risk their lives in those tin cans for around $15 an hour. The customer pays over $20.00 an hour to the guard company and waaaaay too much of it goes to 'overhead'.

If you absolutely have to bring in contract guards, check here as a starter, at Choosing a Security Contractor... then email me.  Check out the Guide to Detecting Surveillance of Jewish Institutions as well, while you're there.

It may not be best to use off-duty cops as they can be called away on duty and therefore not show up, or have to leave. They switch shifts from time to time so there goes the team continuity out the window. Also, they may take on too much responsibility such as "Don't shoot unless I'm there ..." a/o teach your team only what is approved by their department. Vicarious liability laws then become the arbiter of the level of training and preparedness of your team.

There must be a church volunteer-based team. And if you run a church school along with your church, please listen to me: You need armed security. You don't have the right to gamble with the lives of your sheep or your students.

It matters what you do next, especially given this new story.

And a 25 Oct '11 update here.

Comments

[Peggy]

Could you please address the real hindrance to church security: the idea that "we don't need security because God will protect us"?

I could cite numerous examples of Christians who've said this to me in various contexts (excusing poor sanitation, putting more passengers in a car than there were seatbelts for, etc.).

The most egregious incident was when we were living in Germany during the first Gulf War. Our daughter attended an off-post American church school where all the students & staff were military dependents. I noticed a storage locker with a lot of cubbyholes located on the outside of the church/school, next to the main exit. It looked like a perfect place to stash an explosive device; a terrorist wouldn't even have needed to enter the building. When I mentioned it to the pastor (who was retired military) he totally brushed me off. Evidently, I was too foolish, too fearful, too faithless, and/or or too young-and-female to be taken seriously, even though this was at a time when all our vehicles were subject to bomb searches upon entering the base.

Now, if questioned, he would probably claim that was right after all, because nothing ever happened to the school (thank God!). But is this really the attitude we ought to have, that we're spiritually entitled to be careless about our safety? How do you fight this ingrained idea that carelessness is a sign of faith?