Security dealers and integrators have been securing churches for decades, but the demand has picked up in recent years, spurred largely by mass shootings in 2015 at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (also known as Mother Emanuel) in Charleston, S.C., and in 2017 at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
“Churches are always open with large groups of people gathering,” says Chip Shiver, president of Dayton, Ohio-based Shiver Security Systems, which operates as Sonitrol of SW Ohio. “With the mass shootings happening, I believe church leaders recognize the potential threat.”