5 TACTICS TO KEEP HOUSES OF WORSHIP SAFE

Houses of Worship have been under steady attack by forces that are not only spiritual within the last two years. Hate crimes, particularly violent hate crimes have spiked in the previous four years. Unfortunately, like with any active shootings we've seen a spike in mass killings at Churches, Synagogues, and Temples (Sikh).

What we try to do in our newsletter is to come up with some possible tactics to come up with that are based on our teams' experience and knowledge. I am going to write our 5 tactics and take a look at what homeland security says afterward and write down the ones that either I didn't cover, or I find to be helpful.

I and the leadership team at our company, Malwork stand by our perspective that in the case of Active Shootings and other critical incidents, the burden of protection of the people inside the facilities should ALWAYS be on the Leadership of the organization and its stakeholders to provide the necessary physical security. I am not saying this because it is practical and perhaps a smart thing to say from a business perspective. No. I am saying this because the whole point of going to school, to church, and to the mall, is that we TRUST those who expect us to learn, worship, and buy from them to have our safety in mind first and foremost. If we are sending in guys like us to train them in how to survive unarmed against an AR-15, wielded by an irrational person with the intent to murder; we've sincerely missed something if we are in the life-saving business. Thus, here are 5 tactics and strategies that should be in place at a House of Worship.

1. Video Surveillance and Remote Monitors: CCTV/Video Surveillance should be manned by REMOTE monitors as a mandatory requirement. Particularly on the days and or hours when the facility will have more than 5-6 occupants walking around at any time. It is nice to have evidence to see what the "badguy" has done to ensure they are captured and prosecuted successfully, but that evidence is useless if the bad guy was successful at their intended task which may have been to kill innocent worshippers of that facility. A.I. Video Analytics is able to make it relatively easy for remote monitors to become alerted to a trespasser, the organization and or the company hired only needs to make sure that the video analytics are optimized to accommodate for notification time by setting up intrusion areas and "line-crossings" so the remote monitor can respond with law enforcement notification and other security team members on the grounds.
2. A Threat Risk Analysis on Entry and Exit Points as well as an analysis of Survivability: After the site survey if necessary and the upload of the Video Surveillance analytics, it will be time for the leaders of the religious organization to sit down with the Security Professionals that are in charge of helping them improve their overall security posture. This is where we recommend security professionals map every hallway, corner, and trafficked area and apply names to them that will be used by all personnel within the security chain; then begin applying scenario-based tactical planning for all points of ingress, egress, command, and control, and what your "three security pillars" (see below) will do when faced with a threat. Detailed analysis of survivability based on the capability and preparation of the organization and multiple types of threats facing them, should be considered.
3. A Working relationship and Liason with Local Law enforcement: It is imperative that these types of organizations establish a liaison and rapport with local law enforcement and are able to extend your security needs to quick notifications and regular patrol of your parking areas. I understand that many in the religious community may feel having law enforcement or hired security patrolling the ground but in light of today's social environment, I would be surprised if the participants of the organization did not feel safer with a police or security guard present.
4. A Security Team on the Ground with at least 1-2 armed members depending on Building: As mentioned above, there should be a minimum of one armed security guard and two depending on the size of the church, synagogue, or temple. There should also be established coordination and planning between the onsite security guards, the remote monitors, and the internal volunteer security escort team in lieu of a critical incident occurring. It’s imperative that these guards are tuned into notification from Remote Monitors if something is seen prior to being engaged. It is also imperative that these guards will be properly trained on how to respond to an incoming hostile with superior firepower.
5. Create a Ministry of Internal Unarmed Security Escort Team of Volunteers: I used to be part of the Security Ministry at my Church in Columbia Maryland (Bridgeway Community Church, if you're interested); it was an awesome way to serve an awesome church. We were all unarmed but most of us were current or former law enforcement, special agents, soldiers, etc. We focused on two main areas; protecting the pastor and protecting the entrances and exits that led to the parishioners. We also did security escorts and monitored the inside of the church while being connected to radios. I am sure that many religious establishments have a similar volunteer force, but their duties have to be well-planned with a lot of training in evacuation procedures and shelter-in-place; additionally, we recommend monthly scenario-based drills with the full team coordinating as the "three pillars" of the security pyramid, remote monitors, armed guards, and internal security escorts.

There is much more to this story when we consider command and control, and threats coming from a known individual within the organization (insider threats). However, if these tactics are applied correctly they should be helpful to any security professional seeking to improve their religious organization's security posture. However, let us take a quick look at what the Department of Homeland Security's Critical Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) provides as help.

Generally, CISA gives the 1000-foot view of what you should do such as providing a "holistic" security solution, which translates into multiple overlapping points of security. Sounds kind of like the outlook above. They also put a lot of emphasis on performing and utilizing a well-done Threat Vulnerability Assessment. So do we, except that once the assessment is done you need to plug in scenario-based protocols that will work "best" within an extreme circumstance such as an Active Shooter on the premises. CISA seems to give the 100-foot view then shift into a sort of providing an outline for "How" you might consider doing things if you don't know much about security and that's somewhat useful to a novice, but we recommend at some point that organizations bring in security professionals to appraise the current security posture and provide advice on what could be improved or added.

If you have any questions about what's been written in this newsletter don't hesitate to reach out to us on LinkedIn or send an email to [email protected].