More than half of Americans (54%) say their top safety concern while attending religious services or community, nonprofit and school events is an armed intruder or physical violence incident, according to an August 2023 study from Church Mutual Insurance Company, S.I. Unfortunately, that is for good reason. The FBI reports active shooter incidents increased by 66.7% from 2018 to 2022, the most recent data available at the time of publication.

Further, half of respondents to Church Mutual's survey believe that their house of worship, nonprofit, community group or school is not prepared for the possibility of an armed intruder. This highlights a concerning gap and an opportunity for agents to help clients mitigate a sobering risk.

“In this day and age, given the number of incidents that we've seen across the country, organizations really need to be prepared," says Eric Spacek, assistant vice president of risk control at Church Mutual. “The broker or agent needs to be discussing the importance of, No. 1, being prepared to protect the people they're serving, and No. 2, protecting the organization itself."

“If the organization does nothing from a security standpoint, they can certainly be held liable for that," Spacek says.

While general liability coverage would insure an organization against liabilities after a violent incident, including defense costs and attorney's fees in response to allegations of negligence, there are specialized coverages on the market to deal with the aftermath. For example, Church Mutual's Violent Incident Response Coverage “provides specific benefits, including crisis communication, public relations, cleanup of facilities, and counseling for employees and those impacted by the event," Spacek says.

To improve preparedness for an armed intruder scenario, organizations should have a centralized security team to plan for not just armed intruders but all types of unfortunate incidents, such as fires, property crimes, medical emergencies or natural disasters, Spacek explains. “Organizations should do an assessment of their vulnerabilities and then develop a plan from there."

Security cameras and armed security were the top two safety measures Americans feel their organization should be implementing, according to Church Mutual's survey. The top desired safety step at 59%, security cameras generated “high interest from respondents," Spacek says. “But if nobody's watching what's on the cameras, it's just capturing what's happening for after the fact. It's important to have real-time monitoring of those cameras."

When it comes to armed security, the next most popular safety measure at 56%, “off-duty law enforcement officers is our best recommendation—and that was preferred by the 72% of study participants too—while our least-preferred method would be a volunteer armed security team, for liability purposes," Spacek says.

Organizations should approach adding armed security measures thoughtfully, both from a cultural and insurance standpoint. “Particularly in a house of worship, there can be a discomfort level with an armed security presence," Spacek says. “And once an organization is offering armed security, they're most likely going to be liable for that—does the organization want to carry that liability itself, or do they want to share it with those trained off-duty law enforcement officers?"

“The broker or agent should talk with the organization about their values, help them work with the right carrier that can provide needed coverage and help the organization determine the best approach to security, especially armed security," he adds.

AnneMarie McPherson Spears is IA news editor.