Page 26 - Security Today, January 2018

COVER STORY
FINDING A BALANCE
Recent events spark talk of security on church campuses. By Jessica Davis
The headlines have been horrifying recently. It seems like every other week there is another shooting to break the spirits of America all over again.
Three of the five deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history have taken place in the last 10 years on the campus of a church or school. Just a few months ago, a shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, made headlines when it broke the top five mass shoot- ings, taking place at a small Baptist church just outside of San Antonio. The shooting took place on the campus of First Baptist Church on a Sunday during the 11 a.m. service. The gunman shot at the outside of the building, walked inside and continued to fire into the pews of the sanctuary, killing 26 people and injuring 20 more. The victims includ-
ed children as young as 18 months old.
The shooting in Sutherland Springs is the latest of at least three
church campus shootings in the past three years. In June 2015, a gun- man shot and killed nine church members during a prayer service at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. In September 2017, a gunman stormed the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch, Tenn., fatally shooting a woman in the parking lot before entering the church sanctuary, shooting and wounding six people.
It is apparent that attacks on relatively unprotected sites, or soft tar- gets, like places of worship are increasing. Many church campuses
across the country are beginning to question the security measures they implement on their own campuses.
WAKE-UP CALL
“It is absolutely a wake-up call regardless of where you are in security planning. Security needs to be part of every church’s function, whether it’s a church of 50 or 21,000, like Redemption,” said Travis Hayes, CFO of Redemption Church in Greenville, S.C.
Redemption started reevaluating its security policy and protocol in the wake of the 2015 Charleston church shooting. At that time, the church decided to install 166 cameras across its campus, as well as deploy armed and unarmed guards on the premises during times of high traffic, like Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. Redemption also chose to work closely with Greenville Police and the Greenville County Sheriff ’s Office to quickly and easily report suspicious activity.
There’s a fine line when it comes to securing church campuses. The congregation wants the campus and facility to be open and inviting to anyone who decides to worship there, but Hayes believes that the church as a responsibility to protect those coming to their campuses to worship.
“I think there is a fine balance in having an armed security officer at every corner versus being an open-doors, you-come facility,” Hayes said. “But I think you can find that balance.”
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