St. Clair Township PD and OCPA Hold Crime Prevention Training | News, sports, jobs

Criminal track and church staff gathered in the St. Clair Township Community Center for a safety training program that is geared towards soft goals such as churches and non-profit organizations. The event was organized by the St. Clair Township Police Department and the Ohio Crime Prevention Association. (Photo with the kind permission of Deb Dawson, financial officer, St. Clair Township)

St. Clair – The chief of police from St. Clair Township, Brian McKenzie, and some of his officers recently carried out training to become the security of the house for worship by the Ohio Crime Prevention Association (OCPA). The aim is to support soft goals for crime such as churches, non -profit organizations, community organizations and learn more on how to develop security programs to prevent crime.

“It is a sign of times and unfortunately we live in the times when we do,” said McKenzie about the need to have such training. “It is not only for worship houses; basically it is a life hour.”

The participants of the training included law enforcement officers, clergymen, parishioners and other parishes of several communities, including municipalities in the districts of Columbiana and Stark, Cleveland and the surrounding area, Steubenville, Goshen, Austintown and communities from West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

McKenzie said it was a pleasant surprise in the many different places from which people come from the training. He would have liked to have had a larger number of visitors, but was satisfied with the amount.

“As long as we get the message and the information out of at least one organization, it is worth it,” said McKenzie. “If you try to educate people, sometimes do not pack up a room, but this person will bring it back to your organization and raise it, and this person could affect a few hundred.”

McKenzie noticed that schools were seen as soft goals. He will share the information from the training with Beaver Local and other districts that are interested in the information.

According to officer Kelsey Hedrick, the idea for training from an apprenticeship that took part in himself, McKenzie and Officer James Canon came through the OCPA a few years ago, where they were certified as specialists for crime prevention.

Hedrick noticed that they came back from training and implemented what they learned. Since then, they have wanted to keep the adoration training house in recent years and have finally been able to do it.

According to Hedrick, part of the training is aligned with churches and synagogues, but also the contraception of crime due to environmental design and situation -conscious of what is about itself and much more.

“Every time you do this type of active violence training, it is for somewhere,” said Hedrick. “This is what it does a little different from just having an active shooter class. Such training of active violence is everywhere.”

For example, if something happens on the way of a person from anywhere or during participation in an event, the training offers an idea of ​​a way to be safe, being safe and doing it afterwards. Unfortunately, active violent situations happen more and more – the more people are trained, the better it is all.

“The training that you get and how you react could happen anywhere,” said Kendrick, emphasizing that an incident could take place in a shop, at home or practically anywhere.

Hedrick also noticed how many people are seen every day when they switch along the street or talk on their phones and do not know what's going on around them. The training touches the situation awareness that is aware of the surrounding area and what is going on because everyone is a soft goal.

The training was taught by OCPA instructor John Dipietro, who used many top-class events that have taken place across the country, such as the active shooting situation at the Harvest Festival in Las Vegas. The church shots in North Carolina; And the newer ramming end in New Orleans as a discussion shows why a soft destination/house is required for worship training.

Discussions were carried out about possible opportunities how types of crimes could be prevented or how damage, injuries or deaths can be minimized.

The training also focused on the prevention of theft and complaints as well as the basics of crime prevention; Physical, personal, financial and data security; how to organize security and security plans; Development of a security team; Development of a basic risk management program to improve security; the value of a comprehensive security plan; a communication plan in the event of an active violence; How environmental design can help prevent or make it easier to prevent a crime; where they apply for non -profit security grants; Opportunities to prevent vehicles ramming; Active rifle reaction and more. The participants learned the five D of the contraception of crime: prevention, delay, denial, devaluation and recognition.

John Callo, police chief of Goshen Township, took part in the training with the security director of a church, for which the police offer security and believe that the security director will benefit from the How-TOS how to create a security plan with guidelines about what to do in a variety of situations.

“This is a fantastic training, and it will be something great for us to return the security team,” he said. “I think this is great training for many different venues.”

Calko said he would also pass on the information to the school in his region.

Rich Marmon von Follansbee, West Virginia, is a leader of a security team for a fairly new church and also a ridge dealer for first aid/volunteer fireman, who took part in the training to learn how to bring his church to safety. He noticed that he was “great and very informative” for the training and can bring a lot of information back to church, and he believes that other organizations can benefit from this training

Robert Joy von Columbiana, who starts a new Ministry in Austintown, came to training the potential to make the church better.

“I see churches that do nothing and then something happens and they go well, what could we have done?”

Joy said he took a lot of information back to implement security measures in the church and he had learned a lot.

“Not everything has to be implemented, but half a dozen things really make a difference,” said Joy. “It is not so difficult to change the way we do things to make it safer for everyone.”

Depietro said that he thought that the training was very good with great interest and many great questions. He noticed that as an instructor he also learns and returns from the students input.

Hedrick recommended all kinds of training to all residents to make a safer community and found that he was certified to teach and run, hide, to teach Alice. In addition, he will carry out his next month for his certification for AVer (Active Violence Emergency Review training).

Residents who are interested in the contraception of crime can call the department.

kgarabrandt@mojonews.com