POWER: Place of Worship Emergency Response™

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“If I were the devil, I’d prove to people that even God is sometimes absent from church.” 

- Paul Harvey in his radio speech “If I Were the Devil” on April 3rd, 1965.

 

The POWER™ program is designed for church staff and addresses emergencies that can typically occur at churches throughout the week. The POWER program supplements Threat Suppression’s SAFE: Sanctuary Action for Emergencies™ course. POWER addresses additional concerns that can happen at churches aside from those that can occur at the traditional Sunday morning service. The purpose of this course is to discuss basic and advanced preventative measures to mitigate serious crimes in churches. This course assists churches in planning for potential emergencies and defines specific response procedures for a variety of emergencies.

 

Crimes and terrorists threats against churches continue to increase in the United States. In 2008, 24,445 crimes in churches were reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting System from participating law enforcement agencies. These crimes included homicide, rape, kidnapping, and arson. In the last 14 years, there have been more than 650 recorded deadly force incidents in United States churches. Each year, there are approximately 8,000 crimes involving theft or robbery from the church. Since 2008, the FBI has reported a steady increase in the number of crimes occurring in churches.

 

Safety and security threats in churches come from both internal and external sources. Background investigations of thousands of church staff have found that 10% of staff members are ineligible to work with children because of previous convictions for crimes against children. In addition, approximately 25% of the crimes committed at churches are committed by church staff members or church volunteers.

 

In this presentation, attendees will learn about the following: safety and security of pastoral staff, developing security teams, security audits, burglary and theft prevention, church infrastructure security, church school safety (including active shooter response), and staff background investigations. Also discussed is the creation of emergency response kits and development of emergency action plans. Attendees will also be provided tips on creating a safety and security ministry within their church.

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This class is for active law enforcement, military law enforcement, church leaders, church safety/security personnel, and government officials only. This class is not available to the general public.

 

To download a PDF description of this course, please click here. For information on hosting this course, please click here. If you would like more information on booking this course, please email info@ThreatSuppression.com, or call 1-800-231-9106.