Church Safety and Security Seminar Held in Kimberling City
January 18, 2018
Isaac Estes-Jones
“When you think about church safety, you really have to think about the risks and potential impact of one of these events happening at your church,” said Steve Ijames, a retired Springfield police officer who now specializes in church security at an event held on Tuesday, January 9, at the Kimberling City First Baptist Church.
“After the shooting in Texas in November,” Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader said, “People were calling me and asking, ‘Hey Sheriff, what can you do to help us?’ and Steve is the first person that came to mind.”
Ijames started his career in law enforcement in 1978. He has done counter-terrorism training for the Department of State. “Mostly hardening new embassies before staff moved into them,” Ijames said. He has done mission work in Haiti and Nicaragua and is a board member for Project Hope in Springfield.
Ijames spoke to a group of over 200 pastors and other individuals from local churches that were interested in hearing about what they could do to protect their congregations.
“The real first responders to any event at a church are the church leaders,” Ijames said. “Unfortunately, when seconds count, cops are minutes away.”
It was not all doom and gloom, however. Ijames shared numerous statistics that showed that church attacks, especially large ones, are incredibly rare. “The likelyhood of one of these events is 1:126,000,” Ijames said. “Statistically, these are very, very unlikely events. But, what is the impact if it does happen at your church?”
Ijames said that the response and effort taken up by any individual church would have to be tailored specifically to that church. “The biggest thing is to be as prepared as possible. Go through all of those what-if problems that you can think of. And remember, many church related attacks come from someone involved with the congregation in some way. You have to think about all of the different programs you do. The likelihood of some sort of violent attack goes up depending on your ministries. Do you offer drug counseling? Couples counseling? Both of those make the potential for a violent event at your church go up.”
The event was sponsored by the Stone County Sheriff’s Office. Before the presentation began, the Stone County Citizens in Action group served a dinner. “I want to make sure to thank the Stone County Citizens in Action, or CIA as they like to call themselves,” Rader said. “These are graduates of our annual citizens’ academy that we hold every spring.”
Isaac Estes-Jones
“When you think about church safety, you really have to think about the risks and potential impact of one of these events happening at your church,” said Steve Ijames, a retired Springfield police officer who now specializes in church security at an event held on Tuesday, January 9, at the Kimberling City First Baptist Church.
“After the shooting in Texas in November,” Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader said, “People were calling me and asking, ‘Hey Sheriff, what can you do to help us?’ and Steve is the first person that came to mind.”
Ijames started his career in law enforcement in 1978. He has done counter-terrorism training for the Department of State. “Mostly hardening new embassies before staff moved into them,” Ijames said. He has done mission work in Haiti and Nicaragua and is a board member for Project Hope in Springfield.
Ijames spoke to a group of over 200 pastors and other individuals from local churches that were interested in hearing about what they could do to protect their congregations.
“The real first responders to any event at a church are the church leaders,” Ijames said. “Unfortunately, when seconds count, cops are minutes away.”
It was not all doom and gloom, however. Ijames shared numerous statistics that showed that church attacks, especially large ones, are incredibly rare. “The likelyhood of one of these events is 1:126,000,” Ijames said. “Statistically, these are very, very unlikely events. But, what is the impact if it does happen at your church?”
Ijames said that the response and effort taken up by any individual church would have to be tailored specifically to that church. “The biggest thing is to be as prepared as possible. Go through all of those what-if problems that you can think of. And remember, many church related attacks come from someone involved with the congregation in some way. You have to think about all of the different programs you do. The likelihood of some sort of violent attack goes up depending on your ministries. Do you offer drug counseling? Couples counseling? Both of those make the potential for a violent event at your church go up.”
The event was sponsored by the Stone County Sheriff’s Office. Before the presentation began, the Stone County Citizens in Action group served a dinner. “I want to make sure to thank the Stone County Citizens in Action, or CIA as they like to call themselves,” Rader said. “These are graduates of our annual citizens’ academy that we hold every spring.”