How to conduct a basic church security survey

Think like a thief or a criminal. Are you surrounded by suburbs, or is your church now located within a business community? No matter your site, you should look for burglar bars, steel doors, burglar alarm signs and indications of intense police or private security activity. Do the same walk-about at night.

Individual victims may be significantly harmed in any crime. When the crime occurs at church, however, the danger is that the fellowship may be harmed, along with attendance. Folks don't ordinarily worship at sites they are afraid to visit.

There also is a strong liability issue. When a civil suit results from harm at your site, the usual claim is that the church "did not exercise ordinary care."

If your church is in an inner-city crime "hot zone," or any crime-intensive venue, there is also the issue of "forseeability," another legal term implying your church did not reasonably attempt to deter or prevent criminal activity. The terms "due diligence" and "due care" often are heralded in litigation. Failure to respond to assessed risks appropriately may well be considered negligence.

The Scriptures also address this issue. "A prudent man foresees evil and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it" (Proverbs 22:3, NIV).

Many observers believe a determined adversary can overcome almost any security system, but this isn't true. If a determined adversary could defeat any security system, we would not be able to keep an American president in office, our national treasury would be pilfered continually, and our personal bank accounts wouldn't be safe.

In the late 1980s, skyjackings occurred at the rate of two or three each month. Today, these attacks are rarely heard of. Effective security was put in place. The security practices used to protect airlines, our financial institutions and our governing bodies can be used to protect houses of worship.

A purse left in an unoccupied Bible-study class is a soft target. That same purse sitting on the pew between a wife and her husband is much more secure and is a hardened target. Target hardening also involves locks, lights, security doors, fences, alarms and closed-circuit television units.

For a church, the primary form of target hardening is called access control. If guardians — church members, greeters or private security officers — can limit access first to your parking lots and then to your sanctuary, you will have established the first and second tiers or layers of security protocols.