Church Security Incident-Three Men Bust Into Church and Disrupt Services
Monday, August 31st 2009 @ 11:32 PM
Church Security Incident-Three men burst into two seperate churches this past Sunday yelling, "God is dead!" The incident caused a disruption and they were escorted out by church members.
It was a situation that caused fear for church members.
Shreveport Police say the man first ran into the Heritage Baptist Church at Kirby Street and Creswell Avenue, yelling 'God is dead,' and a few other things, before getting escorted out.
"I thought it was humorous in the sense that if there's no God why spend so much of your time trying to disprove that which doesn't exist," said Heritage Baptist Church Pastor Earl Blackburn.
The suspects repeated the offense again just a mile away at First Baptist Church of Shreveport.
"It was right in the middle of service. He just came in and started screaming about God isn't real and it's all fake, it's all a lie," said church member Michael Morales.
"It was just very disturbing," said Morales wife, Elizabeth.
Morales says he and several other men watched the man go outside and get into a pick-up truck with two others passengers.
"A couple of guys called the cops as soon as he walked out and we gave them a great description of the guys and of their truck and we got their license plate number," said Morales.
This is a church security incident that could have escalated very quickly. Notice the church members were able to keep their wits, and reportd a great description, which led to the suspects being apprehended.
Due to the descriptions, police quickly found the truck and charged the driver with DWI. They believe he had just dropped off the other two men at Highland Park, where the men were eventually arrested.
A police spokesman stated, "I just checked with detectives in major crimes and we're going to try to book them in under a hate crime. This could have gotten out of hand quick."
See video at Church Security Member
How to Not Be A Church Security Tyrant
Thursday, August 20th 2009 @ 8:23 AM
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I was recently contacted by a sincere man who was concerned about how he had handled a situation at church. This, in his opinion, has hurt his reputation with his pastor and some church members and it bothered him very much.
This is the rub with church security. Sometimes people don't take security as seriously as they should and consider your efforts a joke.
When you, as a church security or church safety person, point something out that is important, people may think you are making a big deal out of nothing.
If you press your point, you may be seen as being overbearing and not full of grace. So what do you do?
Have a verbal pre-plan of how you will react in a giving situation. Often we over-react and the outcome is less than desirable.
Taken from our verbal comms DVD, in this video I discuss a simple technique to disarm people with personality.
You may check out the verbal comms DVD below.
Click Here to View The Church Security Verbal Communications DVD
Church Security Personnel On Video Taking Men Into Custody
Tuesday, August 4th 2009 @ 9:59 PM
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The LDS church security incident is an interesting case in what you want to avoid (in my opinion) at all costs.
I want to preface this with the statement that I don't have all the facts, I wasn't there, and I don't know all the laws in the state of Utah. I am also not sure if there was a police officer on scene, or whether state law allows a "citizen's arrest" for a trespassing on private property.
However, in this case, the city prosecutor dropped the charges against the two men being handcuffed. The decision was made because the prosecutor believed it was difficult to prove the two men knew they were trespassing on church property.
This incident sparked "kiss-in" protests on the property. I am interested in your thoughts regarding this incident and what is shown on the video.
In this video, you can see the church security personnel approaching the men and talking to them. The incident becomes heated and the men are immediately separated and a struggle takes place.
The men refused to leave and the security personnel placed them in handcuffs and contacted the police.
A few questions to consider:
1. Was the safety of security personnel or church members in jeopardy prior to seizing the men?
2. Did the church security personnel have a lawful right to place them in handcuffs?
3. Was the force used against the men reasonable or in defense?
4. What kind of training has the church provided for the security personnel?
5. Was the training documented and the performance of personnel recorded?
6. Was there a better way to handle this situation?
7. Given the political and community relations implications, was the confrontation worth it?
How would you have handled this situation?
Controlling Your Emotions
When confronted with an angry person, it is difficult to maintain your own emotions, especially when someone is violating your personal code of conduct.
It is especially important at this point to have a plan of action ahead of time. This can easily be accomplished with scenario based training.
Essentially, the more a person is exposed to a stressful incident, is given an appropriate response, and an opportunity to respond appropriately within the training environment, the more likely the person will respond well under a real incident.
A decision made in haste is often regretted in leisure.
When your personal safety or the safety of people visiting your campus is in jeopardy, it is important you have an appropriate response.
Very often, without the proper training, especially in the stress of a conflict people tend to underact or overact...both of these instances can be disasterous.
When we underreact or freeze this is when an injury to us or those we are protecting are most likely. For example, somebody is kicking a person in the head and we try to use verbal commands to stop it. Using verbal commands when somone is being pummeled is useless and does not stop the aggressive/deadly actions.
Conversely, the opposite is true. If we feel challenged, like we are losing the confrontation, or we are scared, we tend to over-react and the tendency to really harm someone is greatest in this moment.
We may do things that don't make sense, like hit too many times, pursue a fleeing aggressor, or hit inappropriately (which is hard to imagine in a fight, but I don't think anybody really wants to fight in church...kind of defeats the purpose).
How can you guard against under-reaction or over-reaction? TRAINING. Specifically, scenario based training.
Show your team members the appropriate technique (verbal skills and defensive tactics), allow them to practice it, and then place them into a scenario where they can utilize this training (if you don't have training equipment-be careful-even in scenario based training it can feel very real, especially to those who don't like conflict).
Click Here to Learn More About Policy and Procedures (How To Write It Quickly!)
Click Here to Learn How To Train Your Team In Verbal De-escalation Techniques.
