GREENWOOD, Ark. (KFSM) — The Greenwood Police Department will be implementing an extra layer of security during church services in the city.
With the church's permission, officers on duty will make every effort to do walkthroughs during the service.
“We wanna try and be proactive and offer Greenwood citizens the chance to worship and have a little bit more peace of mind because it's not confined to just larger city,” said Richie Wolford, Assistant Greenwood Police Chief.
Wolford says the idea sparked after one of their officers saw a similar practice enforced in Alabama.
“Heinous crimes like active shooters are not confined to any stereotypical place, it can happen anywhere, large city, small city,” Wolford said.
Wolford says several churches are very receptive to the idea, including First Baptist Church.
“Pretty comforting to know that a police department is supportive like that and very much a part of the security at our churches," said Ronnie Deal, Senior Pastor at First Baptist. "There's a lot of people here on Sundays so it was just a great encouragement to us to know that they wanted to partner with us and help us in any way they could.”
Deal says the recent tragedies caused him to be more aware and he looks forward to the extra layer of security police will soon provide.
“It's just hard to know peoples intent and it can happen so fast, so some of this is just a real challenge to be prepared,” Deal said.
This practice will include on-duty officers making walkthroughs while church is in service as well as off duty officers attending church driving their marked cars to the service as a deterrent.
“Just drive that police car and park it just so if somebody drove by or drove into our parking lot and sees a police car there and go 'there must be an officer here' so maybe it would be a way to discourage or deter someone from doing something.”
The department says it is also willing to work with churches to help with active shooter situations and protocols.