Today, two shooting incidents in Colorado awakened church-goers and church leaders to the fact that they can be gunned down coming out of church, just like shoppers can be gunned down in a mall.
There's nothing new about houses of worship being targets of crime, of course, including fraud, embezzlement, theft, hate crimes, harassment, murders arising out of domestic conflicts, burglary, vandalism, auto theft, purse-snatching, robbery, sex crimes, assaults, shootings, bombings and arson. Some of you might have seen the "real crime" television program not long ago concerning one pastor who conspired to have the pastor of a "competing" church murdered. Unfortunately for him, he was conspiring with undercover agents.
In addition, houses of worship are subject to all of the issues pertaining to emergency management that are common to any place where people gather in significant numbers when an area is suddenly hit with a tornado, flood or hazmat incident.
And, houses of worship often host special events that should include proper plans and capabilities for crowd control, adverse incidents, medical emergencies, etc.
And, many denominations operate primary, junior high and/or high schools, and even "Bible colleges", with the same security issues of any other school.
Some churches operate "commercial" ventures, such as consignment shops, bakeries and even clothing stores, although they are organized as "nonprofits".
Some churches operate shelters for the homeless, and restaurant-grade kitchens to feed the poor. Not hard to see the security issues here.
Houses of worship are, like every other segment of society, increasingly computerized, with the IT security vulnerabilities that entails. Membership lists have been hacked from church computer systems.
Finally, houses of worship will have certain employee positions (money-handling, people working with vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly, etc.) for which background investigations should be part of the hiring procedure.
When you add it all up, houses of worship are not immune from most, if not all, of the security issues confronting other types of organizations.
Bottom line is that this represents a significant niche market segment for security and emergency management companies - both in consulting and on the vendor side. They need things in place like a safety committee, evacuation plans, alarm systems, the capability of sheltering-in-place, parishioner notification systems, and very discrete security services (even armed security - it was an armed security officer who killed the Colorado church gunman).
Most big security vendors, other than alarm/CCTV companies, tend to ignore this market niche, despite all of the secondary marketing potential that might derive from it (HINT: CORPORATE EXECUTIVES DO GO TO CHURCH!). This is something worth thinking about for the smaller security company owner who is looking for a specialty.
Philip Purpura published "Securing Houses of Worship" in 1999 but it is now out of print, and there is precious little literature on this subject. However, you can start with ideas taken from school security (about which much has been written), basic emergency management literature and the numerous journals that are published on church management (yes, church management is not unlike business management and has its own literature). Regarding the latter, a research librarian in any decent-sized library can help you to both identify these journals and locate applicable articles. You will also find material about houses of worship in homeland security literature.
There's nothing new about houses of worship being targets of crime, of course, including fraud, embezzlement, theft, hate crimes, harassment, murders arising out of domestic conflicts, burglary, vandalism, auto theft, purse-snatching, robbery, sex crimes, assaults, shootings, bombings and arson. Some of you might have seen the "real crime" television program not long ago concerning one pastor who conspired to have the pastor of a "competing" church murdered. Unfortunately for him, he was conspiring with undercover agents.
In addition, houses of worship are subject to all of the issues pertaining to emergency management that are common to any place where people gather in significant numbers when an area is suddenly hit with a tornado, flood or hazmat incident.
And, houses of worship often host special events that should include proper plans and capabilities for crowd control, adverse incidents, medical emergencies, etc.
And, many denominations operate primary, junior high and/or high schools, and even "Bible colleges", with the same security issues of any other school.
Some churches operate "commercial" ventures, such as consignment shops, bakeries and even clothing stores, although they are organized as "nonprofits".
Some churches operate shelters for the homeless, and restaurant-grade kitchens to feed the poor. Not hard to see the security issues here.
Houses of worship are, like every other segment of society, increasingly computerized, with the IT security vulnerabilities that entails. Membership lists have been hacked from church computer systems.
Finally, houses of worship will have certain employee positions (money-handling, people working with vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly, etc.) for which background investigations should be part of the hiring procedure.
When you add it all up, houses of worship are not immune from most, if not all, of the security issues confronting other types of organizations.
Bottom line is that this represents a significant niche market segment for security and emergency management companies - both in consulting and on the vendor side. They need things in place like a safety committee, evacuation plans, alarm systems, the capability of sheltering-in-place, parishioner notification systems, and very discrete security services (even armed security - it was an armed security officer who killed the Colorado church gunman).
Most big security vendors, other than alarm/CCTV companies, tend to ignore this market niche, despite all of the secondary marketing potential that might derive from it (HINT: CORPORATE EXECUTIVES DO GO TO CHURCH!). This is something worth thinking about for the smaller security company owner who is looking for a specialty.
Philip Purpura published "Securing Houses of Worship" in 1999 but it is now out of print, and there is precious little literature on this subject. However, you can start with ideas taken from school security (about which much has been written), basic emergency management literature and the numerous journals that are published on church management (yes, church management is not unlike business management and has its own literature). Regarding the latter, a research librarian in any decent-sized library can help you to both identify these journals and locate applicable articles. You will also find material about houses of worship in homeland security literature.
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