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Open-doors safest bet for churches, say British security groups
Episcopal News Service
Issue:
Section:
2003-069-6
Posted: Friday, March 28, 2003
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For churches worried about being targets of crime, Britain's National Churches Tourism Group (NCTG) has some advice: leave the doors unlocked during the day. The interdenominational group says locked churches are twice as likely to suffer crime as unlocked ones.
'Professional church thieves will know there are no 'easy pickings' in an unlocked church, and that they are very likely to be disturbed [in action],' said Rosemary Watts, NCTG secretary.
The problem of the impact of crime on churches was highlighted on March 10, when Archbishop David Hope of York said fear of crime was making it hard to fill posts in inner-city parishes.
Ecclesiastical, a company that insures most of Britain's 16,000 Anglican churches, stressed that the key to church security was keeping the building open and occupied. 'Unlocking a church does not reduce crime by itself,' Brian King, Ecclesiastical's head of publicity, told ENI. 'Cathedrals don't suffer much from crime because there are always people about.'
However, the tourism group's Watts said that even in rural Lincolnshire, where visitors may be rare, open churches were safer than locked ones. The 'randomness of visitors' was a more important deterrent than having attendants on duty, she said.
Ecclesiastical supports the tradition of leaving church doors open throughout the week, and does not increase insurance premiums for churches that do so.
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| © 2004, The Episcopal Church, USA. Episcopal News Service content may be reprinted without permission as long as credit is given to ENS. |
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