Reverend Baxter Morris has pastored First Baptist Church in Montgomery for 40 years. The church is right across the street from the police department. Reverend Morris says he's been through the civil rights era of violence and now this era of crime.
"Violent threats were always just a part of life around the church, so we developed a hazard plan for the church some years ago and have kept one updated periodically. We have people in the church who are set to take care almost any situation whether it be tornadoes or whether it be someone coming in the church with the intent to do harm," Reverend Morris said.
After a recent burglary at a nearby church, Reverend Morris says he and other pastors in the area felt a church safety and crime prevention training was a great need.
"Preparation is a part of what we are trying to do now with churches," Morris said.
"We want to have all the church pastors, the administrators who are over the finances of the church. We want to sit down with them and talk to them about what they can do to be safer. We want to look at their cash control, obviously churches take in a lot of money on offerings and we want to make sure they are securing them properly and they are depositing them properly," Corporal David Hicks said.
Police want to making sure your beacon of hope remains safe and members are prepared just in case.
The training is Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church. That's on North Ripley right across the street from the police department.
Hicks says if you're not about to make the meeting Thursday evening, don't worry, officers can actually come to your church and help with security assessment and training for church staff.
You can call the police department for more information.
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