FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, has long employed personnel to patrol its campus, escort women to cars after dark and ensure buildings are locked.
But after a security guard stopped a gunman who entered a Colorado church in December, leaders at Travis Avenue Baptist decided to take another look at how they provide security.
“We're in transition,” said Russ Hibner, the church's facilities manager.
In recent weeks, the church secured training for its courtesy-patrol officers to let them become certified non-commissioned security officers. As non-commissioned officers, they are trained how to handle emergencies and understand the scope of their authority, but they are not permitted to carry deadly weapons. For occasions when armed personnel are needed, the church hires off-duty police officers, Hibner explained.
“We have to weigh a lot of factors and seek a balance,” he said. “We want to provide a service for our members and guests without going overboard and making it an armed camp.”
Just by its presence, the courtesy patrol probably has deterred some criminal acts, Hibner noted. Personnel routinely patrol parking lots in vehicles with flashing lights, and on more than one occasion, small groups have “dispersed quickly” when the vehicles came into sight, he said.
And although the security officers do not carry guns, they do carry direct-connect radios that enable them to contact other staff or call 911. Ambulance service and police have responded promptly when summoned, Hibner said, and police cars often use the church's parking lot as a gathering spot at night.
“We've very happy about that, and we tell them they can use our parking lot any time they want to,” he said.
In addition to the security officers and off-duty police, a parking committee helps provide additional parking-lot security during worship services, and the church instructs ushers and deacons how to handle minor disturbances during worship services.
All churches should do the same, said Phill Martin from the National Association of Church Business Administration.
“They [ushers] should be the first line of defense,” he said. “The day of ushers just handing out bulletins is long past. They need to be trained in what to watch for. They need to understand if something looks suspicious, it may be. A church should have procedures in place to help ushers know how to respond.”
In addition to training ushers, Church staff members should periodically ask a series of “what if” questions to prepare for a variety of security-related issues, Martin suggested.
“We highly recommend church staffs do scenario planning” to envision proper responses for various situations, he said.
At Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas, armed off-duty police officers patrol the facility on Sundays and Wednesdays, but they aren't necessarily the only people carrying weapons, according to Senior Associate Pastor Ken Warren.
Paid uniformed officers regulate traffic flow and security in parking lots, and they wait in the sanctuary while the offering is collected in order to escort ushers to the church's safe.
Their presence is augmented by a significant number of law enforcement officers, who attend the church and will respond to emergencies as members of Green Acres' security ministry team, Warren said.
“They are required to be armed even when they are off duty,” he said. “So, they may be sitting up in the choir or in the congregation, but they are alert and prepared to respond as needed at a moment's notice.”
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— This story is part of a three-part series on church security.