Law enforcement and church personnel gathered at the St. Clair Township Community Center for a security training program geared toward soft targets such as churches and non-profits. The event was hosted by the St. Clair Township Police Department and the Ohio Crime Prevention Association. (Photo courtesy of Deb Dawson, fiscal officer, St. Clair Township)

ST. CLAIR — St. Clair Township Police Chief Brian McKenzie and several of his officers recently conducted a House of Worship Security Training through the Ohio Crime Prevention Association (OCPA). The aim is to assist soft targets for crime such as churches, non-profits, community organizations and more learn how to develop security programs to prevent crime.

“It’s a sign of times and unfortunately, we live in the times that we do,” McKenzie said of the need to have such training. “It’s not just for houses of worship; basically it’s a life lesson.”

Attendees at the training included law enforcement officers, clergy, church members and other community members from multiple communities including municipalities in Columbiana and Stark counties, Cleveland and surrounding areas, Steubenville, Goshen, Austintown and communities from in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

McKenzie said it was a pleasant surprise on the many different locations people came from to attend the training. He would have liked to have a larger attendance but was pleased with the amount that came.

“As long as we get the message out and the information out to at least one organization then it’s well worth it,” McKenzie said. “Trying to educate people, sometimes you don’t pack a room but that one person will take it back to their organization and educate and that one person could directly affect a couple hundred.”

McKenzie noted that schools are considered soft targets. He will be sharing the information from the training with Beaver Local and other districts interested in the information.

According to officer Kelsey Hedrick, the idea for the training came from a training attended by himself, McKenzie and Officer James Canon several years ago through the OCPA where they became certified as crime prevention specialists.

Hedrick noted they came back from the training and implemented what they learned. Since then, they have been wanting to hold the House of Worship Training for the past several years and were finally able to make it happen.

According to Hedrick, while a portion of the training is geared toward churches and synagogues it also incorporates crime prevention through environmental design, being situationally aware of what is going on around oneself and more.

“Anytime you are doing this kind of active violence training, it’s for anywhere,” Hedrick said. “That’s what makes it a bit different than just having an active shooter class. Active violence training like this is for anyone, anywhere.”

For instance, if something happens on a person’s way home from anywhere or while attending an event, the training provides an idea of a way to be safe, get safe and what to do afterwards. Unfortunately, active violent situations are happening more and more — so the more people are trained, the better off everyone is.

“The training you get and how you respond to it could happen anywhere,” said Kendrick, stressing that an incident could occur in a store, home or virtually anywhere.

Hedrick also noted how many people are seen daily walking down the street texting or talking on their phones, not aware of what is happening around them. The training touches on situational awareness, which is being aware of surroundings and what is going on around oneself, because everybody is a soft target.

The training was taught by OCPA instructor John DiPietro, who used many high-profile events that have happened around the country such as the active shooter situation at the Harvest Festival in Las Vegas; the church shooting in North Carolina; and the more recent ramming incident in New Orleans as discussion points on why soft target/House of Worship Training is needed.

Discussions were held on possible ways types of crimes could be prevented or how to minimize the damage, injuries or fatalities.

The training also focused on the prevention of theft and lawsuits along with the basics of crime prevention; physical, personal, financial and data security; how to organize safety and security plans; developing a security team; developing a basic risk management program to enhance safety and security; the value of a comprehensive security plan; a communication plan in case of an active violence situation; how environmental design can help prevent or make a crime easier to commit; where to apply for non-profit security grants; ways to prevent vehicle ramming; active shooter response and more. Attendees learned the Five D’s of crime prevention: Deter, Delay, Deny, Devalue and Detect.

Goshen Township Police Chief John Calko attended the training with the safety director from a church the police provides security for and believes the security director will benefit from the how-tos taught on how to put together a safety plan with directives on what to do in a variety of situations.

“This is fantastic training, and it is going to be something great for us to take back to the safety team,” he said. “I think this is a great training for a lot of different venues.”

Calko said he would be passing on the information to the school in his area as well.

Rich Marmon of Follansbee, West Virginia, is a leader of a safety team for a fairly new church and also a first responder/volunteer firefighter, who attended the training to learn how to keep his church safe. He noted he thought the training was “awesome and very informative” with plenty of information to take back to church and he believes other organizations can benefit from this training

Robert Joy of Columbiana, who is starting a new ministry in Austintown, came to the training to the learn the potential to do better church security.

“I see churches that don’t do a thing and then something happens, and they go ‘well what could we have done?'”

Joy said he is taking back plenty of information to implement security measures in the church and that he learned quite a bit.

“Not all of it has to be implemented, but a half a dozen things really make a difference,” Joy said. “It’s not that hard to change the way we do things to make it safer for everyone.”

DePietro said that he thought the training went really well with a lot of interest and a lot of great questions asked. He noted that as an instructor he learns and takes back input from the students as well.

Hedrick recommended any kind of training to any residents to make for a safer community and noted that he is certified to teach ALICE and Run, Hide, Fight. Additionally, he will be going for his certification next month for AVERT (Active Violence Emergency Response Training).

Residents interested in crime prevention training can call the department.

kgarabrandt@mojonews.com