SECURITY FOR PLACES OF WORSHIP

This is a 10-hour intensive workshop for security and religious professionals aimed at increasing awareness of threats and common vulnerabilities and educating on prevention/response strategies at places of worship.In this course we discuss programs and strategies available to train the congregation and its support staff for emergency response in a cultural context, access control, security awareness, and protection planning – all unique to the industry of worship/religion. We review background screening, establishing partnerships with Police services and Alarm/Security providers, controlling crowds in contained premises, establishing an effective surveillance monitoring system, and planning and organizing drills.We review events and lessons learned from incidents inside religious institutions in recent times and analyze detection, deterrence, and prevention methods that are applicable to institutions large or small.We learn that threats can be both internal, and external, and we examine security of computer networks (containing congregation’s data), flow of people and vehicles to/from parking lots, security of funds and high-value assets, and others.We examine the concept of Continuity of Worship – and planning for providing religious services in the aftermath of a disaster./response strategies at places of worship.