Articles with church security

FBI: Reported Crime Statistics in America for 2024

A violent crime occurred in the United States, on average, every 25.9 seconds in 2024, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program of over 14 million criminal offenses reported by more than 16,000 participating law enforcement agencies and analyzed by the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer.

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On average, a murder occurred every 31.1 minutes and a rape occurred every 4.1 minutes. Violent crimes include murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault; property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Chart: The Spectrum of Potential Threat Personas in Self-Defense and Church Security ]

Just under 73% of the persons arrested in the nation during 2024 were males. They accounted for 78.7% of persons arrested for violent crime and 65.6% of persons arrested for property crime.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, A List of Active Killer Incidents at Houses of Worship and Religious Schools ]

In 2024, 65.5% of all persons arrested were White, 30.5% were Black or African American, and the remaining 4.1% were of other races.

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Security Lessons from Church of the Annunciation Attack

Shortly before 8:30 a.m., Wednesday, August 27, 2025, as faculty and elementary- and middle-school students of Annunciation Catholic School gathered for their first all-school Mass of the year, gunfire suddenly ripped through the stained-glass windows of the sanctuary at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Church Active Shooter Prevention Saves Lives in Wayne, MI ]

In a meticulously premeditated attack, the lone murderer—dressed in black, armed with a rifle, shotgun, and pistol, and positioned outside the church—killed two children, injured 18 other people, and then committed suicide. The assailant had barricaded at least two exit doors from the outside with pieces of lumber. Witnesses say the attack lasted no more than two minutes. News reports do not indicate that a church security team was present.

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Approximately 116 rifle ammunition casings, three shotgun shell casings, and one unfired pistol cartridge were recovered from the scene. The handgun appeared to have malfunctioned.

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Interview With Bob Chauncey, Founder of Church Security Institute Network

SemperVerus interviewed Bob Chauncey, CPP, CISM, LEO (Ret.), founder of Church Security Institute Network.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, New Website Address for Church Security Institute Network ]

What prompted you to enter a career in the fields of law enforcement, private security, and chaplaincy?
As the son of a Baptist pastor, I didn’t want to be a preacher, but rather a police officer, and God let me do that and more.

In college, I got a scholarship as the assistant to the security officer, a retired Navy Chief. I worked from 7 pm to 10 pm, patrolling the campus and responding to calls, and he called when he was ready to take the night shift. I guess this gave me interest in a later law enforcement role.

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2025 Edition of Hostility Against Churches Report Shows 415 US Attacks in 2024

Family Research Council (FRC) has released the newest edition of its report, Hostility Against Churches in the United States: Analyzing Incidents from 2024, which records 415 hostile incidents across 383 churches, including vandalism (284), arson (55), bomb threats (14), armed aggression (28, which is more than double the number (12) identified in 2023), and other crimes (47).

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Church Security Book Review: Defending the Flock ]

“Religious freedom is seldom handed to the passive,” says Tony Perkins, president, FRC. “It’s claimed by those who exercise it even when a hostile culture says they may not. This report clearly shows religious freedom faces substantial threats here at home.”

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Notable findings in this edition include the following:

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