Public Safety Briefing For Faith Leaders In Montgomery County

By Jim Melwert 

MONTGOMERY COUNTY (CBS) -- Wednesdays agenda at a public safety briefing in Montgomery County included the visit from Pope Francis, a massacre at a church in South Carolina, and numerous safety issues facing leaders of faith-based communities.

It was billed as a safety briefing for the Papal visit next month, but aside from the standard 'see something, say something' crowd-awareness campaign, the meeting ended focusing on more emergency preparedness. The discussion responded to situations such as responding to an active shooter in a church, or an emergency evacuation plan during a church service if children are in one area of the building and their parents are somewhere else. The briefing discussed different plans on getting everyone out safety in these high intensity situations.

Marshall Mitchell of Salem Baptist Church of Jenkintown said it's important to have these briefings and to keep safety in mind.
"We don't want anyone to feel that they're entering into the gates of the church with fear or trepidation," Mitchell said. "But we want people to know that there are people who don't mean the church community well, or synagogues or mosques, so we wanted to be prepared."

He said they conducted a threat assessment following the church shooting in Charleston, a reminder, he says that threats are real.