Scott County Sheriff’s Office teaches about church safety

SCOTT COUNTY, Ky. (WTVQ) — Houses of worship all across the state are fighting a modern safety issue.

They want to be welcoming to all but that can sometimes be dangerous.

After two were killed in a Texas church shooting in December, the Scott County Sheriff’s Office and a local church wanted to help area faith groups prepare for the worst.

“As children, churches and school were the places you went where you could basically check out of all the stresses of the world but now we have people out there that know that we’re there and we’re at ease and maybe, we’ve let our guard down,” says Sergeant Eddie Hart with Scott County Sheriff’s Office.

Over the last few years we’ve seen dozens killed in shootings during religious services.

“We hope it never happens but we’re hoping by something we provide today it may save someone from something catastrophic down the road,” says Sergeant Hart.

The sheriff’s office partnered with the Georgetown Church of the Nazarene to host a presentation on church safety.

Over 100 people came out, representing over 35 central Kentucky churches.

“At the beginning when I opened up today I said ‘My heart hurts that we have to be here but it’s the climate of our culture that we’re in right now that we need to do this because my heart would hurt even worse if we didn’t do this and a tragedy happened in a church’,” says Pastor Mike Justice with the Georgetown Church of the Nazarene.

We were asked not to show the presentation so those with bad intentions wouldn’t know what kind of security plan a church might have but we know some of the topics discussed included forming a security team, locking doors, and installing cameras.

It sounds like it would be somber but church leaders say they’re preparing out of hope for the future.

“We advertise every time we’re here. We do want everybody to come and we believe we have a message that changes lives and transforms lives and that gives us hope in a culture like this that has to talk about church safety,” says Pastor Justice.

The sheriff’s office says it’ll likely do another class on the topic.