How places of worship can improve security without disrupting services

Welcome back. It is 7.24. So that planned mass shooting at a Hindu temple in Aurora last week, a really great example of what you should do and why you should say something if you see something. But it also raises questions on security at places of worship. Yeah, really scary. We are getting a clearer look at that perspective with Michael Verdon. He's a retired Secret Service agent, security expert. And we appreciate you being here and offering your expertise on this situation, Michael. We often hear the, you know, see something, say something. But when should someone actually, what is the threshold that you think needs to be met to actually get on the phone, call authorities, alert people? Yeah, the threshold in this particular case is a violent ideation. He talked to a co-worker and talked specifically about the attack on the synagogue. Fortunately, his assault weapon jammed. He tried to shoot at somebody in the parking lot. He was there about 15 minutes, but through divine intervention, that weapon didn't work. And so the attack was not carried out. So in these cases, what can houses of worship do or what do they need to do, do you think, to protect themselves against what could have happened at that temple yeah and i'll start with uh there needs to be an assessment of the building and the property so and if you're a house of worship i would start with your local police department have them visit the uh location also invite the fire department over twofold reason to look at the property become familiar with the property so if they have to respond they know where and where to go once they get to the scene also to get a professional opinion about vulnerabilities of the property uh potential uh you know areas of attack if there's any if there's any specific threats against the building or property but it has to start with a professional assessment that makes sense so that everyone has kind of a lay of the land there now um in terms of striking a balance it's a house of worship it's like one of those it's the opposite of what you metal detectors right it's supposed to be this peaceful environment what is the correct balance for these days for for a house of worship when it comes to security because we saw i mean the the one thing that came to mind i believe was at Charleston, South Carolina, that nine the the nine people were killed I think in in that situation so how do places of worship strike that balance and that's uh that's correct you have to maintain the experience and the atmosphere of a house of worship there needs to be a back to the plan there needs to be a structure so like your ushers for example they can still be looking outward instead of back in the day inward and things like that also you have to look at access into the onto the property and into the building and kind of control that once the service starts you know you can control access lock some doors monitors. You have technology to help you. If there's a video surveillance of the outside, is someone watching those monitors to see if there's someone just standing there in a parking lot or someone observing the congregants coming into the building. So it comes back to a structure. It just can't be ad hoc. You don't need to disrupt the service or ruin the experience, but there needs to be a plan. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you about something. I just saw this over the weekend. The outgoing deputy director of the Secret Service, he's retiring, he's put in his resignation that was in the news over the weekend. And he said in an interview with 60 Minutes that he thought his biggest issue that agents are dealing with right now when it comes to threats. He says there's so many threats and he thinks it's coming from mental health issues. He says that people are being pushed over the edge. So do you agree, I mean, what is your opinion from the private sector now? So what he's citing is, as of July of this year, there's been 10,000 cases, threat cases reported by the Secret Service. That's 40% more than a year ago. So that's a major change. What needs to be made clear is mental health does not mean violence. Just because most people with mental health challenges are not violent. But it is a factor. I think the uptick in the numbers is because of technology too. Now people can go on social media and post something. They can do an email. As compared to before, like a few years ago, it was basically a letter, a phone call. Now it's with social media. There's just more ways to make that threat. So it's more out in the open. Yeah. Yes. Michael, thank you very much for your expertise. And hopefully a lot of, especially the smaller houses of worship, maybe smaller staffs, take that advice and get that survey done by the fire department, the police make sure they're prepared in case anything happens. It's just a shame that it needs to even be talked about, but okay thank you sir