NCJ Number
228476
Journal
THE POLICE CHIEF Volume: 76 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2009 Pages: 54-57
Date Published
July 2009
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article outlines a nine-step process to building a comprehensive security plan to help protect religious institutions/places of worship from criminal attack and victimization.
Abstract
Houses of worship involve a number of activities that are in direct conflict with acceptable crime prevention methodologies. Preventing tragic incidents from occurring requires a combination of physical security features, electronic security mechanisms, environmental security strategies, and proactive policies and procedures. Any successful crime prevention of security-based intervention must offer religious leaders holistic initiatives that protect their congregations and their houses of worship, but do not detract from their ministry. To accomplish this balancing act, religious institutions need to account for nine aspects of security, which are outlined in this article. They include: security consciousness, risk assessment, security evaluation, target hardening, protecting financial assets, protecting youth, proactive strategies, media response, and ministry protection. Houses of worship represent a unique crime prevention challenge for police due to their very nature. However, following this nine step process will help houses of worship build a comprehensive and balanced security plan. 2 notes