The 1966 massacre on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, in which 14 people died and 31 were wounded, is categorized as the first “active shooter” tragedy in America, but it was the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado that got the full attention of the nation, according to law enforcement officers who addressed church leaders in Shelby County on Feb. 20. Thirteen people were killed at Columbine and 21 were injured April 20, 1999.
More than 100 church leaders gathered at The Church at Chelsea-Westover, in Shelby Baptist Association, to learn about protecting churches from active shooting incidents. The event was sponsored by the association, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department and the Shelby County Law Enforcement Chaplains Association.
“By their very nature as welcoming organizations, churches are ‘soft targets’ for aggressors,” according to Carol Dodgen, of Dodgen Security Consulting in Birmingham. “But our response in the first few seconds are so critical. We must assess areas of weakness and make plans to protect our people.”
‘Deadly force incidents’
Dodgen said 85–90 percent of her time is spent leading workplace violence training.
Dodgen noted there were nearly 1,200 “deadly force incidents” from 1999 to 2015 and gave explanatory break-down about the underlying causes. The categories were, in order of frequency: robbery, domestic spillover, personal conflict, mental illness, gang-related, religious bias, drug-related and random. According to the FBI, nearly 4 percent of deadly force incidents between 2000 and 2013 occurred in churches, resulting in 21 fatalities and 27 people wounded in the six incidents.
Dodgen encouraged participants to make plans and train for every possible emergency.
“Dave Grossman said, ‘You do not rise to the occasion … you sink to the level of your training,’” Dodgen said. “I agree. It’s important for church leaders to make plans to protect their congregations.”
Lt. Brad Flynn of the Helena Police Department noted that Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has ordered all Alabama law enforcement officers receive active shooter training, but that most active shooter events are over by the time law enforcement arrives on the scene.
Have a plan
“Sixty-nine percent of these incidents are over in five minutes or less,” he said. “Therefore what you do as a leader on the scene is important.”
Shelby County Correctional Officer Jeff Woods said, “You need to know the doctors, nurses and EMTs in your church, and those who’ve had CPR training. Safety team members should have assignments and stick to them in the event of any emergency.”
Shelby County officers fired an assault rifle on the church’s parking lot to give participants inside an idea of what live gunfire sounds like and sponsored another training scenario when an officer disguised as a drifter came into the church lobby demanding money.
Keith Brown, ministries center director for Shelby Baptists, said the participation and the speakers met his expectations.
“Unfortunately this is a topic we’ll need to give more attention to,” he said. “We’re especially concerned about churches since they most often have little security.”
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