5 Major Incidents That We Are Reviewing:

Questions we ask and answer in today's podcast

We can remove disruptive people.

#1 Risk Assessments and Security Evaluations

Internal risks involve threats that exist inside the institution’s campus or building. External risks are those that stem from the site’s physical location.

#2 Harden the Target

A strengthening of the security of an individual premise with the goal of reducing or minimizing potential criminal attack, risks, or vulnerabilities.

#3 Protecting Financial Assets                                                                

Financial threats to a house of worship include the crimes of robbery, embezzlement, theft, and fraud.

#4 is Protecting our Children and Youth

Every Ministry should operate within policies and procedures that balance the mission of the ministry with the inherent risks associated with children’s programming

#5  A Media Strategy or a Reputation Strategy

No discussion of crisis response would be complete without addressing the need to be prepared to respond to inquiries from the media and the public. A “no comment” response is not considered a response; it is a dodge

10 Practices to minimize theft of ministry monies

1. Rotation

Volunteers and employees who help with counting the offering should be rotated on a regular basis.  No one should stay in the role indefinitely and the use of multiple, unrelated people will make it more difficult to skim dollars from the offering.    Routes should also be rotated…how do we take the money from collection in the auditorium to the office or counting room.  When it comes to rotation, also rotating who takes the money to the bank and the routes which they use to take the money to the bank. 

2. Safes

Cash and checks should be kept securely in a locked safe until it is delivered to the bank.  Get a safe with a drop slot so that it doesn’t require someone to open it to make a deposit into it.  Have a policy that the safe is only opened by two people and the combination is limited to a few people who do not have a key to the room the safe is kept.  

3. Two-Person Rule

The cash handling policy should have a strict two person rule, stating that there will always be a minimum of two people when cash is handled, counted or transported.  The two people should not be related and should not have personal financial issues.

4. Background/Credit Checks

In today’s society it is only wisdom to perform a background check on all church employees and volunteers but people who have access to church funds should also be subjected to a credit check.  

5. Watch for Warning Signs

There are many signs you can watch for but a few to think about are:

6. Act on Suspicion

If you have a gut feeling, take the time to investigate and act on your instincts.  

7. Supervision/Management

Whether that oversight is of employees or volunteers, it is critical to have good supervision of those who deal with church funds.   Make your presence known, ask questions and insist on timely financial reporting.  Management and supervision is a crucial aspect of financial controls.

8. Policy and Procedures

The first step in any effort of control is to write policies and procedures.  Spend some time thinking through how your organization would like to control the handling of, and access to, church funds.   The more eyes on the books, the more likely it will be for someone to notice irregularities.

9. Training

Employees and volunteers who help with counting the offering, or assisting in the church office, should be trained at least annually on the policies and procedures that relate to church funds.  

10. Audits

Church audits are expensive, there is no question, but it is critical that the church takes the steps to conduct thorough church audits on a regular basis.

First thing we want to discuss is that the Incident Command System is "a systematic tool used for the command, control, and coordination of emergency response" and it is "a set of personnel, policies, procedures, facilities, and equipment, integrated into a common organizational structure designed to improve emergency response operations of all types and complexities.

ICS gets very technical and very in-depth……..I just want to talk about the basics today.   What you will encounter with incidents at your facilities, but also what you should be thinking about as far as structure goes with your own team.   In simple terms ICS means someone is in charge……and that person may change depending on when something happens and what is happening.

Who is responding as part of your team or who from our community emergency response system is responding?  If you have a medical emergency during your service…….hopefully a doctor or nurse is in attendance…..you may also have a police officer in attendance and then you as part of the security team.   So now in that same medical emergency situation during your service, we continue the analysis……who is in charge or who is calling the shots and giving direction?   It is going to be the doctor or medical professional.  

Now during this incident, someone calls 911 for medical help or an ambulance……and in 4 or 5 minutes an EMS response team, and ambulance and a police officer all arrive to your medical emergency…..who is going to be in charge ?   If you guessed the medical or EMS response team you are right.   It is a medical situation and they have the most experience and knowledge so they take command of the scene.

Now let’s say you have a stabbing or shooting within your ministry service.  In the process you call 911 and you get a flood of police and medical people arriving.   Now who is in charge?    The first priority is going to be to get people medically evaluated and then transported to medical facilities.  So who is technically in charge to start with?  It would be the highest ranking member of the Medics or EMS personnel on scene…..but as that process gets going or most people are in the process of being transported to the hospital, your facility begins to transfer to the command of the police as this is now the scene of a crime and investigation.    If you stand back and watch this transfer in action, it may be tough to see.  In fact if the medical people on scene have plenty of personnel, you may actually see police, putting up yellow police tape and beginning to block things off and calling in detectives as the medical personnel are working on the patience……initial priority …..get medical help, get people transported to medical help……next start looking at the crime scene.

So back to some of the official discussion and overview:

ICS is based upon a changeable, scalable response organization providing a common hierarchy within which people can work together effectively. These people may be drawn from multiple agencies that do not routinely work together, and ICS is designed to give standard response and operation procedures to reduce the problems and potential for miscommunication on such incidents. ICS has been summarized as a "first-on-scene" structure, where the first responder of a scene has charge of the scene until the incident has been declared resolved, a more qualified responder arrives on scene and receives command, or the Incident Commander appoints another individual Incident Commander.

Key concepts

Unity of command

Common terminology

Management by objective

Flexible and modular organization

Span of control

Coordination

Incident action plans

The consolidated IAP is a very important component of the ICS that reduces freelancing and ensures a coordinated response. At the simplest level, all Incident Action Plans must have four elements:

Comprehensive resource management

Comprehensive resource management is a key management principle that implies that all assets and personnel during an event need to be tracked and accounted for. It can also include processes for reimbursement for resources, as appropriate. Resource management includes processes for:

Integrated communications

Composition

Incident commander

Command staff

General staff

A. What is your role?

1.Appear calm, centered and self-assured even though you don’t feel it. Relax facial muscles and look confident. Your anxiety can make the person feel anxious and unsafe and that can escalate aggression.

2.Use a modulated, low monotonous tone of voice (our normal tendency is to have a high pitched, tight voice when scared).

3.If you have time, remove necktie, scarf, hanging jewelry, (not in front of him/her)

4.Do not be defensive-even if the comments or insults are directed at you, they are not about you. Do not defend yourself or anyone else from insults, curses or misconceptions about their roles.

5.Be aware of any resources available for back up. Know that you have the choice to leave, tell the person to leave or call the police should de-escalation not be effective

6.Be very respectful even when firmly setting limits or calling for help. The agitated individual is very sensitive to feeling shamed and disrespected. We want him/her to know that it is not necessary to show us that they must be respected. We automatically treat them with dignity and respect.

B: THE PHYSICAL STANCE

1.Never turn your back for any reason

2.Always be at the same eye level. Encourage the person to be seated, but if he/she needs to stand, you stand up also.

3.Allow extra physical space between you – about four times your usual distance. Anger and agitation fill the extra space between you and your person.

4.Do not stand full front to person. Stand at an angle so you can sidestep away if needed.

5.Do not maintain constant eye contact. Allow the person to break his/her gaze and look away.

6.Do not point or shake your finger.

7.DO NOT smile. This could look like mockery or anxiety

8.Do not touch – even if some touching is generally culturally appropriate and usual in your setting. Cognitive dysfunction in agitated people allow for easy misinterpretation of physical contact as hostile or threatening.

9.Keep hands out of your pockets, up and available to protect yourself. It also demonstrates non-verbal ally, that you do not have a concealed weapon

10.  Do not argue or try to convince, give choices i.e. empower.

11.  Don’t be defensive or judgmental.

12.  Don’t be parental, join the resistance: You have a right to feel angry.

C: THE DE-ESCALATION DISCUSSION

1.Remember that there is no content except trying to calmly bring the level of arousal down to baseline.

2.Do not get loud or try to yell over a screaming person. Wait until he/she takes a breath; then talk. Speak calmly at an average volume.

3.Respond selectively; answer all informational questions no matter how rudely asked, (e.g. "Why do I have to sit with these sinful people?” (e.g. "Why are all church people ___ ?) Answer Informational questions    -  Ignore Do NOT answer Abusive questions.  Explain limits and rules in an authoritative, firm, but always respectful tone. Give choices where possible in which both alternatives are safe ones (e.g. Would you like to continue our discussion calmly or would you prefer to stop now and come back tomorrow and see someone when things can be more relaxed?)

4.Empathize with feelings but not with the behavior (e.g. "I understand that you have every right to feel angry, but it is not okay for you to threaten me or my people.)

5.Do not solicit how a person is feeling or interpret feelings in an analytic way.

6.Do not argue or try to convince.

7.Wherever possible, tap into the person’s cognitive mode: DO NOT ask "Tell me how you feel. But: Help me to understand what your are saying to me” People are not attacking you while they are sharing with you what they want you to know.

8.Suggest alternative behaviors where appropriate e.g. "Would you like to have a cup of coffee (tepid and in a paper cup) or some water?

9.Give the consequences of inappropriate behavior without threats or anger.

10.  Trust your instincts. If you assess or feel that de-escalation is not working, STOP! You will know within 2 or 3 minutes if it’s beginning to work. Tell the person to leave, escort him/her to the door, call for help or leave yourself and call the police.

There is nothing magical about talking someone down. You are transferring your sense of calms and genuine interest in what the person wants to tell you, and of respectful, clear limit setting in the hope that the person actually wishes to respond positively to your respectful attention. Do not be a hero and do not try de-escalation when a person has a gun or is extremely violent. In that case, simply comply and simply try to leave the area and call for help or call for police.

So I always want to start out these type of discussions reminding us about balance.  We have to have balance between a safe and secure environment for our people, families and ministry staff and a friendly and welcoming environment.  So you may have a ministry leader that talks about being “low key” on security or a leader who talks about scaring off people with too much of a security presence.   I want to say that even though I am very big on the idea of needing some security for our ministries, I am a definite supporter of balance.  When I train church security personnel in seminars I always mention that fact that I think for most churches, security should be a plain clothes team that is not detected, trained as much as they can, with a solid plan of operation.  Having a solid operation is key in my mind.  What I mean by that is that I challenge myself and my team often enough that when something happens I handle it or we handle it.   If someone stands up and interrupts the ministry service, you or your team get up from your positions, walk forward, ask the person in a solid voice and speech rate to go with you outside, and you then escort them out.  It happens and it happens right now and the process flows just like you practiced in your mind or in your team meeting.  And while you are going through this process to restore order, you do it with the least amount of distraction as possible, remembering that there are families and children watching you. That is a solid operation.

As an usher or greeter you are very valuable to the security plan in a ministry.  You tend to know what is going on.   You especially know who generally attends church and how do most people conduct themselves.  So you can spot a suspicious person or a suspicious circumstance very quickly, in fact quicker than most everyone else including ministry leaders.

The next issue is what is your plan or what would the rest of the ministry team like you to do if you do spot something suspicious or someone who is acting suspicious?     So within the ministry are you just eyes and ears, so are you going to notify someone or are you now going to begin to deal with this issue?   If it is a suspicious person, are you going to intentionally meet and greet them and begin to ask them questions?   I would certainly recommend that if you are asked to handle something like a suspicious person, that we do go up and speak to them like anyone else.   We are friendly, maybe we offer them coffee or water, if that is what we do for others, then ask them if this is their first time….and so on with the questions.  Get to know them a bit and determine if your thinking they are suspicious is correct by how they respond to your normal questions, or if they are just fine.   If they are suspicious, and you continue to be concerned about them entering the service, then how are you going to deal with that.  Ask them to sit to the side of the lobby and you are going to get someone to speak with them?  Or what else might you do or your ministry leaders want you to do?

That idea of what are you going to do as an usher or greeter if you see someone suspicious is an important question to answer ahead of time.   If you are the leader of the usher team or greeter team, it is important that you give direction when it comes to security direction.  What do you want them to do in many different circumstances.    As a member or a leader of the team, challenge them with recent articles or stories about what has happened in churches and how the ushers reacted.   For instance if I was in charge of the ushers or greeters or I was filling one of those rolls, I would want to challenge us with discussion of a recent event.   On the church security facebook page on May 20, 2014 we listed a news story about a man who robbed the church offering from a couple of ushers as they walked the money bags to the office.   They eventually chased the guy down and got the money back…..    This would be a great discussion to have with the ushers and or greeters.   First, how might we handle the offering differently ?  Do we have 2 or 3 ushers walk the money to the office?   Then we challenge everyone on the team and as the leader we give them direction on how we want the money handled and then what we want them to do if someone tries to rob them.   Certainly giving them your thoughts on if the person has a gun or is unarmed, what do you want them to do.   And I hope your discussion talks about letting the money go in either case, but especially in the case of someone having a weapon.     This thinking ahead of time or talking to your team is invaluable should this situation actually happen.

So realistically the primary role of an usher or greeter should be to observe, make an assessment of the situation you see and then get assistance or take action.    To do this we need to be aware, alert and ready to get someone to handle this or help us deal with the situation.

Next there is another area that Ushers and Greeters can help with and that is what we might call intel or information.   You might be more in touch with the members or congregation than other in the ministry.   So part of that intel or information gathering might be knowing or hearing about family conflict, spouses that are having turmoil outside of church.  You might also know about complaints former members or current members have about the church or people within the church.   You may also know about people who have been kicked out of the church.  You might also be aware of recent divorces or separations or child custody battles between spouse and/or church members.    You might also become aware of people having stalkers, or people having health issues that may make them violent at times. 

When you become aware of this information you might share this with the rest of your team, or if you see these people that are going through difficulties arriving to the church or ministry location you might alert the rest of the team. If your ministry has a security team, alert them of the issue with this person or persons and their arrival.

It would not hurt also to speak as a team of how you might operate as a team.   Who or when might it be a good time to walk through the parking lots. If a problem happens in church who will warn people, who will call 911 and who will lock doors to keep the bad person out or escort people to safety?    All of these thing are topics I believe we should be discussing on a monthly basis at a minimum.

The last thing I want to talk about is where do we position people.  If you have 3 or 4 ushers or greeters, obviously we are going to have them near the ministry entrance.  But then what do we do with them.  Do a few of them go to sit with their familes?  Then do we ask a couple of them to be observers and greet late people?   If we do have them stay, what are good locations for them to be at.   Where they can see people entering the church and maybe see what is going on inside the church or outside in the parking lot.  What are your anticipated issues that day or that month?

Remember this security concept is really based on preplanning, thinking about things ahead of time and defining roles.   It is most important if you are a leader of the ushers or greeters that you tell them What you would like them to do in the event of these different emergencies or issues and then discuss them every so often to refresh in everyones minds what we should do.  Remember when something happens as in a crisis or emergency, most of the time our brains are going to freeze for a moment and then begin to react.   So it is important to discuss options and preplan so that when our brain comes out of the shock or freeze, we can begin to react quickly and do what we were trained to do or talked about doing.