Church attacks can be stopped with three-step training strategy, security expert says

In the wake of the attempted mass shooting at the CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, Michigan on Sunday, one security expert offered a unique tip that could stop churches from becoming targets. 

Ken Alexandrow spent 26 years as a police officer with the Metro Nashville Police Department, many of them as a training officer in confrontation management. He was also a member of the FBI joint terrorism task force for several years. 

After retiring, Alexandrow founded AGAPE Tactical, a company that provides security training to churches, schools, businesses and individuals. 

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Alexandrow told Fox News Digital that churches can implement a simple tactic right away to harden themselves against would-be bad actors. 

“If you did nothing else but create a ‘first impressions ministry,’ or a ‘parking lot ministry,’ have people greeting and welcoming your visitors and guests and looking for an anomaly, you win,” he said. “You’ve already started.”  

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Alexandrow teaches a “deter, detect and deny” method, and says the key to protecting a church from violence begins with simple observation. 

“Deterrence is the psychological defeat before they even try,” he said. “I’ve mentioned many times about having people in the parking lot. Everyone has seen both men and women that by looking at that person, you say, ‘oh, I don’t want to try that person, they’d be too much of a fight.’ You’ve just won. You’ve psychologically defeated them before they even attempted, and that’s a victory. That’s deterrence. Avoiding bad.” 

Detection, Alexandrow said, relates to security cameras and human surveillance. 

“Do I have cameras? Do I have a camera operator? Are my people trained observers? Do they understand what to look for? That’s the detection part.” 

Denying has two meanings, according to Alexandrow. First, it means not denying that bad things could happen, then understanding what lengths church leaders are willing to go to deny bad actors from wreaking havoc. 

Not all churchgoers have to be armed to help secure their place of worship, but rather, they just need “the heart to serve,” he said, and they can do that through a specific church ministry meant to protect their church. 

“When I started training these churches and saying, ‘let’s start a safety ministry, which includes the parking lot, which includes medical, which includes an armed responder,’ now men and woman say, ‘wait a minute, you mean there’s a place where I can serve, where I can get trained, the church pays for it, it makes me a better man, woman, husband, wife and citizen, [and] makes me safer at home and at church?'” Alexandrow said. 

Training is also key. 

“When you’re setting up these ministries, and you’re setting up your deterrence and your denial and your detection strategies, just remember: it’s great to have volunteers, but you have to equip them with the tools to do the job, or else you’re putting them in danger,” Alexandrow said. 

The bottom line is trusting your gut. 

“Listen to your intuition,” he said. “If there’s a reason you paid attention to it and a reason you noted it, guess what? That’s an anomaly. And if you’re not comfortable investigating it further, make sure you tell somebody who is, and you can’t just let it go.” 

Alexandrow praised the vigilance of the members of CrossPointe Community Church, who killed 31-year-old gunman Brian Anthony Browning before he could enter the place of worship. 

Police said church security guards neutralized Browning after he arrived on church property, driving erratically, and then opened fire. 

“Several staff members from the church approached the gunman. A parishioner struck the gunman with his vehicle as the gunman shot the vehicle repeatedly,” Wayne Police Chief Ryan Strong said. 

“The church security team was alerted by the [gunfire] and reacted quickly to engage the suspect outside the main entrance doors of the church. The security team locked the front doors and exchanged [gunfire] with the suspect, who was shot and killed by a member of the security team.”

Fox News’ Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.