De-escalation Techniques for Dangerous and Difficult People // Church Security Training

[@jeffloflin6316]

11.5 years in a prayer ministry at a medical clinic listening to many one on one. Looking forward to listening to more of your videos. Thanks!

[@AdamNorby-hz9kr]

That Church security ad is the most hysterical thing I have ever seen

[@revgriz120000]

Thank you for this presentation. This is a difficult and complex subject to train, and to put into practice properly, especially under the heat of the moment. I am going to send a link to this video to key members of my security team. I am certain they will benefit as well. Thank you for all you do for this community.

[@ChurchSecurityAnswers]

Yes I agree it is difficult to put into practice......it has to be used daily with the little issues, so you have it on your mind for the big stuff. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Troy!!

[@KHelgerson-rq5rd]

Thank you friend for the information you have provided. I’m a retired prison chaplain. It was a great refresher for me. Listening skills are so important. God bless you.

[@Fiddlefaddle115]

Very grateful for content like this. I had an encounter outside our church a couple of weeks ago. A homeless man attacked a homeless woman. One of my church members alerted me and I ran out to face God knows what. Thankfully our church allows us to be armed which gave me more confidence in being able to keep myself, my team and our church members safe. In this case there was no time to deescalate, immediately I began giving commands. I have a military background with some honor guard service so I had developed a pretty good command voice and presence. Funny to think about honor guard giving me the tools I needed that day now. As the woman screamed for him to get away I began ordering him to get away from her. One of my safety teammates stood next to me. Both of us stand over 6ft and must have been an intimidating for the man to suddenly be confronted with. Back at our church a few yards away my other teammate, a Navy Corpsman instructor started shuffling our looky loos back into the church. He secured our sanctuary and children's ministry. While I was giving commands for the man to leave the woman alone he began to argue. "She's my girlfriend, I'm just trying to get a cigarette." "This is none of your business". While our team is not the neighborhood police department, there is no way we could allow this to continue and it was now our business. As the man cussed and complained, I wouldn't budge or engage in any dialogue. It was time for him to go and he wasn't going to argue his way out of staying. As he began to leave he started to get in my 20 ft bubble. I lifted my shirt just above my waistline and put my hand on the handle of my Glock 43x. Immediateley I began to consider how much worse I may have made the situation. I thought of the father in Texas who became enraged when a gun was brought into the equation. The man stopped his advance on me and began walking to the direction of a large flood ditch that is traveled frequently by the homeless in our neighborhood. It didn't stop his protest or cursing. But he never made eye contact, or said a word about me having my hand on my pistol. He may not have even noticed, I'll never know. I'm glad I didn't have to go any further than placing my hand on the pistol. He went off into the ditch and we haven't seen him since. The woman stayed in the spot she was sitting in so I went to check on her to see if she needed medical treatment and prayer. Thankfully she was fine except for being a little shaken up. I had the opportunity to pray over her and invite her to service. She gave me some excuse why she couldn't and left shortly after. Our team learned an incredible amount that day. We all agreed that getting involved was very risky for us and the church but ultimately it was the right thing to do. We also agreed there's a time and place for de-escalation and decorum but that there will also be times like this where there is only going to be room for one way dialogue.

[@ChurchSecurityAnswers]

Wow Dave! Thanks for sharing about this incident. There is always so much we can learn from an incident like this. I am glad everyone came out of this safe! Yes it is risky to get involved......was this on your church property or right next to the church property?

[@revgriz120000]

It sounds like you did what you had to do under the circumstances and under the pressure of the moment. This is one of those situations that is almost impossible to train for, so making decisions on the fly can be a real challenge. Had this been my church, we may have reacted similarly. The only thing I think I might have tried that you didn't mention is having someone call 911. Ultimately, this man committed a crime against a person, and involving law enforcement is generally a good idea. Mind you, I am NOT saying you should have done that or anything else differently. I was not there, so I cannot know. Again, you resolved the situation without violence and that is probably the best outcome you can hope for here. Thank you for sharing.

[@ChurchSecurityAnswers]

@@revgriz120000 Great comments Troy!

[@Fiddlefaddle115]

@@ChurchSecurityAnswers this was on another property. We were able to stay in the street and re direct him.

[@Fiddlefaddle115]

@@revgriz120000 I didn't mention it in the post, but 911 was called. They showed up a half an hour later.

[@PsychNurse.]

Subscribed. Thanks 👍👍

[@williametnyre]

excellent information. very useful for our outreach program where occasionally we encounter pissed off, angry people

[@timothyregan8189]

Great information! Thank You so Much for this information.

[@TonyTube407]

Very nice presentation. And free information to boot!! Thank you.

[@ChurchSecurityAnswers]

Thanks for watching and commenting Tony!

[@MelindaTodd]

Thank you! Very good training. Now off to listen to the book.

[@Fahim_Lalani]

❤perfect thank you 🙏

[@ericguyer3935]

Very good tips thank you.

[@ChurchSecurityAnswers]

Thank you Eric for taking time to leave a comment!

[@dunamisflux1786]

Can you please cite the Psychology Today article that you refer to at 2:23?

[@ChurchSecurityAnswers]

It is the 55/38/7 Formula. There are many articles from them on the topic. Here is one of them on the study they did previously. online.utpb.edu/about-us/articles/communication/how-much-of-communication-is-nonverbal/

[@krystinarushing5566]

Listening is great but when you have a team that won't help you and stand in your way from safety it becomes a problem.

[@ChurchSecurityAnswers]

This seems like a challenge for sure Krystina! Thanks for watching and sharing.

[@GentleResponseLLC]

Being able to connect with a person, create a rapport, is critical for successful and effective conflict de-escalation! I tell classes that there is nothing another person is going through that you haven't also at some point, in some way, and you need to use that to connect with them, otherwise you will just be a cold, faceless, heartless representative of all that is wrong in their life and proof that God doesn't love them. Are you even ministry minded when interacting with another one of God's children who is having a bad day? Every contact is a ministry opportunity.

[@ChurchSecurityAnswers]

Hey John, great comments, if you want to cross promote your channel, don't just leave a comment, how about coming on our show sometime? Or talk to Mechelle ([e-mail]) about putting some of your material on the Church Security Association Facebook page, we would love to interact!

[@mikewinkleman8250]

Question: I’m a former police officer and I know that when active police show up they want to take over. In my negotiation limited training I’ve always been under the impression that if you already have a dialog that’s working with the subject it’s not a good idea to change the person they are talking to. How would you suggest maintaining control of the situation until someone with higher level training in negotiations shows up? I can see me negotiating with someone and it’s going good and the local police show up, which have minimal training trying to force me away from the situation. Hope this makes sense.

[@ChurchSecurityAnswers]

Thanks for the note Mike, great question. If we were one law enforcement agency showing up to assist another that should be the case, who ever has good dialogue going should maintain that until it deteriorates. However in our church security capacity, we are generally just a person acting until law enforcement arrives and then they take over. So they are really making the call at that point. If they are wise and do not have a lot of negotiations training, it would be smart to keep the dialogue going with the church security person (if it is going well), but it truly has to be their call as we are under their authority and we want the liability to transfer to them when they arrive. This is simply my opinion....great question! Thanks for commenting.

[@ronr3656]

It'd be nice if this got to Don Gerred, head of security for Crossroads Cincinnati. He operates the opposite of what is in this video and is a loose cannon, and the organization is blind to it.

[@Soulcritic]

I'm an armed guard. My deescalation technique is a little squirt of OC gel, in mid scream the vagrent will shutup & leave. It ain't pretty but it works! I ain't going to bothered by your woke feelings!

[@royjennings4781]

??? Our church & school have recently removed the eronious no guns allowed signs from building.what do you think about a new sign with a picture of a hand gun & fixed blade nine on top with the words below, PLEASE LEAVE YOUR WEAPONS AT HOME OR LOCKED IN YOUR VEHICLE THANK YOU. / possibly with a second part or paragraph stating , STAFF MAY BE HEAVILY ARMED. CURIOUS ON YOUR THOUGHTS????

[@ChurchSecurityAnswers]

Hey Roy, thanks for watching and commenting. I am not one for telling people that they can or cannot have guns. Most people are going to obey the law. This gun stuff gets into an area where it becomes drama or irritating to people. If you don't want them to open carry then that is something you can quietly tell someone who enters openly carrying. As far as the "Staff May Be Heavily Armed", I don't like telling people we are armed. I am for showing a great presence, a couple people in lobby or walking the lot with low profile name tags and showing people we are on the look out. The only real signage I favor is about cameras on the property. My overall attitude is we are low profile, friendly people but we are ready to take action if necessary and they may not realize we are security or taking action until we are well into our processes. Just my opinions.

[@tslilbearshoppe9870]

so not only do teachers have to learn this but now church staff has to learn this too? What has happened to this world. :(

[@ChurchSecurityAnswers]

It is a sad situation unfortunately.