Interviews

Preaching the wrong message?

by Mark Rowe

After horrific terrorist events in Europe, and notably those in France, it is hard to deny that the frequency, targets, and methodologies being employed by religious inspired terrorists are ever changing and represent an increased risk to a much wider demographic than secular terrorist groups such as the IRA, writes Sarah Jeffery, Security Consultant at the consultancy BB7.

In light of this, guidance has been prepared for many more places of congregation offering advice on best practice and prescriptive measures to reduce the overall risk to those that work, visit, and live in these places. The horrific attack in the Catholic Church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray has been a particularly horrific example of how places of worship, their clergy and congregations, are potential targets of terrorist attack and as such the safety and security of those that visit, work, and administer these buildings has been the subject of high profile media publicity in recent days. Guidance has been issued by National Churchwatch, an organisation offering free security and safety advice to Churches throughout the UK that proposes a number of measures for Churches to adopt in order to reduce the risk posed by terrorist attack.

Media interviews with the author of that advice, Nick Tolson, suggest that rural churches are more at risk and any attack is likely to be carried out using bladed weapons rather than firearms.

What is the advice? Broadly speaking the advice can be broken down into the following four categories:

Surveillance – The advice suggests that all churches should have CCTV.
Controlling access – The advice suggests restricting the number of entrances into the building before, during, and after a service.
Situational awareness – The advice suggests that Clergy, volunteers, and regular visitors should be aware of what is ordinary and question anything that is not.
Preparedness – Brief all regular visitors to the Church so that they know what to do if they see something suspicious.

Mostly sensible, so what’s the problem?

Put simply, without specialist input the above could be a waste of money, do more harm than good and, at the extreme, put people at risk of physical injury or worse. Empowering people to challenge suspicious people can be a good thing but it must be balanced against the risk they are faced with. If this guidance’s primary objective is to address terrorist incidents like those seen in France then the advice should be simple and should reflect that issued by the Government – Run, Hide, Tell.
Also, restricting the number of entrances into the building, if not properly thought through could also make it easier for an attacker to injure more people as their escape route(s) are also restricted.
Increasing situational awareness is a good thing, but specialist training for those delivering the sessions should be recommended to ensure that appropriate and audience specific training is delivered.
Lastly, and perhaps the crux of the advice and certainly the subsequent media reporting is the suggestion that all Churches should have CCTV. This is the one area where the advice may not be helpful and may actually cost Churches money with little or no return.
CCTV in a nutshell
CCTV is the term used to describe technical surveillance, i.e. the use of technology to provide video images of areas of interest such as entrance doors, reception areas, and places where higher value items are stored. This is most commonly done by establishing a network of cameras that generate images on a screen as well as recorded images on a digital recorder.

Value of CCTV

To be of value, the CCTV must be of use and this means that it needs to have a defined purpose. In the case of a church that may be to deter would-be vandals from damaging property, or from petty criminals from stealing the collection fund; however, where terrorism is concerned the value of CCTV in deterring a would-be attack is very low. In fact, in the spirit of Jihad recognition and publicity after the event may actually be sought so CCTV may actually assist this goal. Further, CCTV provides no opportunity to detect unusual behaviour, such as planning and preparation or the carrying of weapons, unless someone is watching it or it has sophisticated software that can generate an alert or response independently. In short, to be of value the user’s requirements need to be carefully planned and outlined in a report before a supplier is identified and commissioned to install a system. It may be determined that a CCTV system isn’t the best option for the security objectives of a particular Church, so our advice here would be to set out your needs in a logical structure and then determine what the best way to achieve these are – if you are in any doubt then you should consider seeking expert, independent advice.

Cost of CCTV

CCTV, as established in the National Churchwatch guidance, can range in cost from a few hundred pounds to many thousands to purchase and install. But CCTV also requires maintenance, especially the cameras themselves, and operation all of which represents additional and on-going costs. CCTV, unless designed correctly can generate a lot of unnecessary data that then needs to be stored in a way that protects the data from unauthorised access which again can add to the operating costs as well as unintentionally expose the Church to risks of non-compliance with the Data Protection Act which can, at the extreme, result in financial penalty.

What do we suggest?

Adopt a risk based approach to any security decision and then consider what the most effective way of achieving the desired outcome is. You should also bear in mind that the likelihood of a terrorist attack taking place in your Church, versus the likelihood of low level criminality such as anti-social behaviour and theft, may be such that your finite resources will be better spent on crime prevention measures – especially if they can serve as a counter terrorism measure – should they be deemed appropriate.
We are preparing a series of free workshops for those responsible for places of worship – if you would like to share thinking on some of the ways you can approach security both in terms of crime prevention and counter terrorism, please get in touch and we will let you know where your nearest event is.

Visit www.bbseven.com.

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