Recently, our ward/stake made assignments for one priesthood holder to stay at early morning seminary as part of the security detail. These were the instructions:
Is it sufficient to have a single priesthood holder? The other teachers are women but leave immediately after they finish teaching. This leaves open the possibility that a single adult male may be left alone with a single youth (female or male, either way that's not a good situation in my opinion)."The basic requirement to be at the building at 5:30 a.m., open the building, make sure the building is safe inside, turn on the lights, sit by the one entrance that is open to show a priesthood presence, wait for the students and teachers to leave (for a reasonable time after seminary ends) and, if there is snow, shovel a way into the one entrance to the building."
Should there be any sort of additional training? How should someone react to any number of potential scenarios? Just some that come to the top of my head: Intruder, Armed Intruder, Hostage Situation, Break-in, Active Shooter, fire, medical emergency, etc. A wrong decision or action in any of these scenarios could dramatically impact the outcome. Hence why I think that training would be important.
Without training on how to react or handle certain situations, it wouldn't be too hard to see someone assigned to handle security trying to physically shove or push an unauthorized individual from the church. From that point, it could quickly escalate into a very bad situation.
Guard: "Sir, I need to ask you to leave the premises"
Intruder: "I don't think I need to"
Guard: "This is private property and you need to leave immediately"
Intruder: "Why do I need to leave? I have a right to be here."
Guard: "Please leave or I will have to call the police"
Intruder: "Your sign out front says visitors welcome, I'm visiting." (moves further into the foyer)
Guard: Physically pushes intruder towards doors
Intruder: "Get your hands off me"
You imagine the rest...
Do Bishops or Stakes have incident response plans? If so, is there applicability in these plans that could be leveraged to better inform and train the instructors and security providers?
Is there any liability for negligence? The individual is there for security, but has no training and very limited instructions on what to do. If someone were to be hurt or killed, is the security guard liable since he was the security guard and it happened on his watch? Will the church help him in any way (legal support, accept culpability, etc)?
What have your units done?
Is there really a risk?
Should there be training?
If assigned to security, what can we do?
Probably more important, What can't we do?
Does a single unarmed middle-aged man who is probably half-awake really dissuade criminals and protect vulnerabilities? Are we just kidding ourselves?