My first awareness of threats affecting Houses of Worship (HOW) was during a family Christmas trip to Houston in 2006. While visiting with a family friend who lead a security team for a large church in the greater Houston area, he shared that their security team was formed in response to regular, personal threats against their ministerial staff.
In August, 2012, the nation was shocked by the horrific massacre at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. After this event, I began to research the history of violent attacks against churches, synagogues, and other HOW. I sought to understand how threats against HOW were being identified; how HOW were preparing to address threats; how information is disseminated to potential targets. I researched firms offering services of protection, preparation training, and the methods utilized by these firms.
This research confirmed the need for the creation of an entity to address these growing threats and led me to seek out a collaboration with individuals who had the requisite skills needed and mutual interest in the concept. In August, 2014, I was introduced to Lt. Col (Ret) Doug Wilson, who headed up the security team at his church in Homewood, Alabama. Over the course of several months, we continued to research the topic and decided to pursue the creation of an entity while continuing to monitor threats against HOW as well as threats and acts of violence against other “soft targets” in our country.
On June 17, 2015, the night prior to a scheduled planning meeting, the horrific shooting at Charleston took place.This single event strengthened our resolve to develop an entity that possesses a technological, research and personnel advantage to address threats against HOW. With the addition of Glenn White in October 2015, we gained a strong technology and research component to our team. Over the course of the next year, as we carefully developed our firm, we have seen the strengthening of ISIS and the horrific events within our borders at Chattanooga, San Bernardino, Orlando and Ohio State. These events led us to expand its scope and address not only threats against HOW but other environments and industries as well.
Our firm is committed to developing strong collaborations, delivery of continued research, and prompt dissemination of threats internationally as well as domestically through our news aggregator. We are engaged in preparation of customized threat assessments, training, intel reports, and topical information for seminars for any environment.