Safety and security are top of mind as Twin Cities faith leaders gather for seminar
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Representatives from than a dozen places of worship from throughout the Twin Cities met Saturday, with the focus on safety and security at places of worship.
They filled the main auditorium at Westwood Community Church in Bloomington, where presenters focused on threat assessment, emergency action plans, and partnerships with local first responders.
"Today, we're educating church leaders on how to stay safe and secure in an open-door environment," said Simon Osamoh, Founder and CEO of Kingswood Security. "Most places want to keep the bad person out. Churches, we believe we're a house of brokenness. We welcome all individuals and that carries risk."
Osamoh says for nearly a decade, the one-day seminar has worked to empower and educate faith leaders from multiple religions on how to keep people safe in their respective places of worship.
"What we need to do is understand that there is brokenness in the world, that crime is on the rise," he said. "We just need to be better educated, better informed, so if we're ever in an adverse situation, we know what we can do."
"The common enemy that mosques, synagogues, churches have, is people who hate," said presenter Rob Allen, Director of Community Security for the Jewish Community Relations Council.
"One of the challenges for faith-based organizations is that there's so much going on in running the day-to-day operations in running a church or a synagogue, that you forget that safety and security is an important part of it," Allen said.
Both men stressed that while overall risk of attending a place of worship in the Twin Cities is incredibly low, seminars like theirs help to ensure that stays the case.
"The risk of something bad happening at church or synagogue or mosque is very very small, it doesn't mean you shouldn't be prepared to address it," Allen said. "The reason that we're here is not because it's unsafe, but to make sure that it continues to be safe, and that people are trained and empowered that if something bad happens, they know how to react."