http://youtu.be/LizbtfkYtd8
In the wake of explosions at two Las Cruces churches, Holy Cross Catholic Church and Calvary Baptist Church are looking into expanding the security at both churches.
After the explosives were detonated at the churches, church leaders wanted to make sure people attending services would be safe going forward. Pastoral associate for administration at Holy Cross Catholic Church, Wade Cornelius, says they first looked at what could be done immediately to make sure the church was safe.
“Our primary concern was what’s going to stop this from happening the next day,” Cornelius said. “And so the concerns were what would the agencies be able to support us here on campus, and what could we do at an extended level to make sure that out campus was safe.”
Lead Pastor at Calvary Baptist Church, Kevin Glenn, says after the attack congregants at Calvary Baptist were asking about a plan for security going forward.
“Are we going to do things that are kind of preventative,” Glenn said. “And proactive to make sure that if there is anything suspicious or weird looking or anything like that, we address it beforehand. And we were able to do that, we were able to do that this past weekend, and have some members in place to be able to continue to do that. In addition, to security cameras being installed within and outside the campus.”
Glenn says church leaders were on hand at Sunday’s service that were staying vigilant of their surroundings and helping people feel safe without disturbing services.
“There were more people at each door,” Glenn said. “More people in the parking lot, and a lot more people moving around kind of having their eyes open. And that was different, but it wasn’t intrusive.”
Las Cruces Police says they have been speaking with churches about safety precautions and remaining vigilant. Wade Cornelius said since the attack law enforcement has helped them keep the church secure.
“They’ve been here every day,” Cornelius said. “And this weekend they swept the church with the dogs before Mass on Saturday, and then they did it early 5, 6 A.M. on Sunday. Then they had a presence here at church all of Sunday, and then on top of that we had our local security, security concepts, and they were here monitoring the grounds and they are here doing that now as well.”
Cornelius says moving forward they plan to hold classes and training on safety and emergency preparedness.
“That will allow ushers and staff to know how to organize a crowd,” Cornelius said. “How to move out of the church in case of an incident in the future. And what to do in other circumstances.”
Both churches are now looking to install security cameras on the premises and dealing with budget constraints. Pastor Kevin Glenn says they are going to start by installing cameras where they are most needed.
“We are prioritizing zones,” Glenn said. “You know there are certain zones where we are really missing some eyes and we are paying attention to those first. But the system that we are going to install, it’s going to be cost effective for us, but it can be added to along the way.”
Wade Cornelius said Holy Cross is using the online fundraising site Gofundme.com to help raise money to install the new cameras, and have raised close to $2,000 in the past week.
“We’ve been in the process of looking into security systems,” Cornelius said. “It wasn’t in our budget, we have a very modest budget, and so we started a go fund me account and our parishioners have been very generous with that.”
Law enforcement is still investigating the explosions and is asking anyone with information to call the FBI tipline at 1-800-CALL- FBI.
