14 Tips for Securing your church
during festive seasons
an essential point by point guide for security managers and church CSOs
Dr. Tunde Ewedemi - Security Consultant.
Introduction
December is a crucial month which historically has high crime rate in Nigeria. The
surge in crime during this period cuts across the Nigerian society with the usual need
to spend money on the family and various things over the festive period. The church
is gradually becoming a key target for criminals who want quick money. Churches
being part of the society also, always notices increase in theft of mobiles phones,
tablets and other small items during this period. Apart from petty theft, late night
muggings, car theft and armed robberies are also rampant.
We cannot ignore the situation with Boko haram, they are known to target and
coordinate their attacks when and where they can get the most casualty and
Christmas services is one of those. We all remember the Christmas bombings of 2011.
The purpose of this short guide is to help churches to be more vigilante during this
period, these tips should be part of a daily check-list for people responsible for the
security of churches especially during the festive season.
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1. Develop a plan for securing your premises
You need a plan that will detail how you intend to secure your facility during the
festive period. This plan will need to be specific to this season. If you already have a
plan you need to review its content and make sure that everything is in place.
Remember that the lives of the people coming to your church during this period may
be dependent on you being proactive.
2. Develop an emergency plan, even if its a temporary one
Nobody wants an emergency but planning for it is central to the work of the security
and safety team in your church. Emergencies can be fire related, health related or
even armed attacks or bombing.
Have you put systems in place to help you respond well during this season? Do you
have first aid equipment? Have you checked its content lately to ensure that every
thing is still there? Do you have enough material in it to cover at least 5% of the
members of your church? Do you and your team know how to administer basic first
aid? Do you have training and understanding of fire prevention and basic fire fighting?
Can you confidently say that 50% of your team members are competent in basic fire
fighting skills? Do you have emergency escape routes mapped out and known to
everyone?
3. Diligently implement and monitor your plans
Having a plan for security and emergency is only the starting point, implementation
and monitoring is the real deal. You need to be actively monitoring the activities that
you have planned to ensure that they are working well. You most likely have members
of your team who are responsible for implementing various aspects of your plan, do
you have a monitoring system in place for each activity? For example, do you have a
monitoring system for your guards who are patrolling your grounds to make sure that
they are actually on patrol and not just sleeping in a corner of the church?
4. Conduct a thorough background check of your staff and volunteers
Do you know who your people are? Do you know the background of the guards or
volunteers that you have on your team? This is a crucial and important aspect of
securing your church during this period. Criminal don’t just operate without inside
information, they need to know how things work so that they can successfully carry
out their plans. They may try to volunteer on your team just to know your weak
points before they attack.
5. Search your team members when they arrive in church
One area I see churches ignoring is that of “check in” for security staff, when your
team arrive in church you need to make sure that you have a system for checking
their bags and any property that they bring to church. Many my feel this is going over
the top but if you have a rouge on your team for example, they may assist criminals
by smuggling in weapons.
6. Search your facility before every service
You need to systemically search your premises before every service. Six Boko Haram
members were arrested in Imo State in June, very early one Sunday morning inside
the Winners Chapel Owerri, while planting bombs on the church premises. If not for
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the vigilance of the security men on the premises the story could have been different.
Your searches must be thorough, search floor areas, under chairs, inside air condition
units, empty cup boards and others.
7. Check and review your access procedures
You will need to review your current access procedures for both services and non
services days and also for different times of the day. It is good practice to change your
processes slightly from time to time so that your access control procedures are
unpredictable to people planning any evil. Change people who were planed to take
certain roles without prior notice.
8. Search people and vehicles entering your premises
Design a non intrusive search process for your church if you don’t already have one.
People will generally comply with your systems if they are well informed in advance
and the search is carried out in a friendly and professional manner. Your team
members need to know what they are looking for and how to identify them when they
see them. Concealed weapons and IEDs (improvised explosive devices) may be hard
to recognise it you are not properly trained. Someone trying to bring pistol or IED into
the church will make sure it is well hidden, it will fit nicely inside a cut out Bible for
example.
9. Check cars parked around the street near your premises
Car bombs are very common especially in recent attacks on churches in Nigeria so it is
important that your team members are vigilant in checking parked cars. Not just
those trying to enter your church premises but also those packed nearby. When
checking cars look through the car window and check to see its content. Can you see
anything unusual? (Wires sticking out, drums or petrol kegs) Follow your in house
procedures to deal with these concerns.
10.
CCTV operators refresher training
If you have CCTV in your church you need to retrain your people especially for this
season. The threat facing your church during normal services is different to that they
may be facing now. Run mock scenario based training and use practice drills to ensure
that the control room works well during your Christmas services. Think of training
back up people in case the main CCTV operator comes late or doesn’t come to church
for any reason during your main services. Many churches think that they only need to
man their CCTV during services, this is a massive mistake, train and let your security
people use the system 24hours a day. It will only make your church more secure. If
you don’t give your full time security access to your CCTV system because you don’t
trust them, then they shouldn’t be any where near your church any way.
11. You need good communication systems in place
Your communication equipment is essential during this season, if you don’t have a
mode of communicating with key people in your teams and other related teams
discretely during your services you need to think hard about it. Some churches rely on
GSM phones, this is not a reliable means of communication for an effective security
team. The GSM network is not reliable, lines may be engaged, you can only talk to
one person at a time. Two way radios are the only communication equipment that we
recommend for security and safety related communication in churches. Do not restrict
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the radios to the security team members only, you may need to inter phase with your
ushers, your protocol or even your children’s department during emergencies. Time
wasted in communicating a simple message to the right person may mean the
difference between life and death.
12.
Improve the lighting in and around your premises
Check the lighting on your church premises, this is important in-case of emergency
and also to prevent unwanted activities from happening in these areas with bad
lighting. If you have CCTV remember that even with night vision cameras you will not
be able to see people or activities clearly without good lighting (infra-red flood lights
are excellent for improving coverage and depth of CCTV night vision).
13.
Plan to keep children and young people safe
When we discuss security, people tend to focus on armed attacks and theft mainly, the
security of the vulnerable in our churches is another major aspect of security and
safety in the church. Children and young people do suffer child abuse of different
kinds in our churches, from people they know and even strangers. Festive periods do
attract people who have evil intentions to church so we need to take another critical
look at our child safety and protection policies.
14.
Rehearse your processes and procedures regularly
So you have everything in place, congratulations. I pray that the enemy will not visit
you this Christmas or at any other time in Jesus name, Amen. The only other question
that I need to ask you is this: Do your people know what to do in every incidence that
can occur? Have they practised the different scenarios over and over again? Don’t be
surprised that providing training alone is not enough, people tend to forget what they
have learnt during emergencies. Practising and rehearsing procedures is what helps
people to remember and respond to situations in the appropriate manner. The training
provides the information while regular drills embeds the knowledge into their psyche
so the right actions will come naturally when required.
Conclusion
Thank you for taking time to read these tips, we are available to assist your church in
any of the aspects mentioned above, contact us NOW using any of the methods below.
PS: Please pass this to the person or people in your church who are responsible for
making decisions about security and safety if that is not you.
Written by
Dr. Tunde Ewedemi
Chief Executive Officer
Great Heights Nigeria/CrimeBusters Nigeria
www.greatheightsnigeria.com
www.crimebustersnigeria.com
[email protected]
+234 808 277 6955
+234 903 001 7866
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