Church crime: understanding American good practice techniques
By Nick Tolson, 2021
Fellow’s Profile
Fellow’s Profile
Church crime: understanding American good practice techniques
Protecting churches from crime by learning from US churches' experiences
2010
South West
My Fellowship was concerned with looking at crime reduction techniques, especially violence against clergy, in US churches. The techniques that I learnt were circulated to over 68,000 churches in the UK via an insurance company. Since 2016 (the money ran out), I have retrained as a paramedic, currently working in Somerset. Interestingly, the techniques that I learnt about protecting clergy have worked for protecting paramedics. I have passed these on. The NHS does have personal safety training days, but these are often academically heavy and not a lot of practical stuff. The quote I hear the most is 'If someone pulls a knife on me, can I hit them with my oxygen cylinder?' Of course the answer is 'maybe'.
The techniques I learnt are still being trained in churches. I also developed counter-terror techniques for churches which the Home Office has published based on my Fellowship research, so I would like to think that some real, practical advice has been made available to reduce the fear of violence in churches.
By Nick Tolson, 2021
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
By Nick Tolson, 2021
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.