Developing Lockdown Protocols

“The human brain is the most effective survival mechanism known to man — but only when properly prepared.” -- Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

When is a Lockdown needed and what are good procedures for it? Church leadership must make good decisions after careful review and discussion with your attorney and insurance company, to be sure it is sound.  A lockdown is an emergency protocol that usually prevents people or information from leaving an area, but can also be used to protect people inside a facility.  The protocol should only be initiated by someone in a position of authority.  

Does your church have a policy for when a Lockdown is necessary? Do you have a good method of recording and documenting when children in Sunday school, and who is authorized and allowed to come and get them?  Like any Plan it must be in place before it is needed, with proper planning and training, and then practiced to be sure it will work smoothly.  It is too late if the need occurs before the Plan is set in place.

There is no one size fits all lockdown protocol that will work properly in every church because procedures must reflect differences in building design and local law enforcement response capabilities.  Lockdown protocols that look great on paper or during basic drills initiated by an administrator can have significant gaps when tested by actual events.  All lockdown strategies must be clearly established and they must be practiced to be sure they work.  There are several steps that make sure that their lockdown strategy provides the staff, members and visitors to the building or facility with the greatest amount of protection.

The Need for a Plan:

“A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.” (Proverbs 22:3)

The Action to meet the Need:

“But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.” (Nehemiah 4:9)

The strategy needs to be designed for each layer of security, from each room to the perimeter of the facility.  There must be alternate plans and possible adjustments that can be made to make sure there is clear line-of-sight surveillance and entrance way monitoring.  There should also be a good method of communicating details or changes to be made.

All organizations need to decide the best type of lockdown solutions or any combinations that will best suit their facility.  They will then need to make sure that all the building lockdown procedures and preparations are detailed and maintained.  They need to know who will call for, direct and assure that the Plan has been carried out and make any needed changes.

Organizations will also need to learn what types of hardware or methods work best and which to avoid using.  They will need to make sure that lockdown standards are understood by all staff and those who are in the building or coming to it.  Parents may get very concerned if they don’t know that their children are safe and being cared for.

Together, communicating these steps to all who may be involved or become subject to them, will help make sure that an organization’s Lockdown Plan and Procedures are successful and will work to protect them and those they are responsible for.

If you do not have a Plan or a Safety/Security team to carry it out, and if it has not been put into practice after training, you have not prepared yourself for any future crisis.  

Be safe!

Russ Sharrock

I have developed and made available to anyone interested, for FREE, a series of Security & safety forms that can be printed for your use:

1) A Safety & Security Risk Assessment Form

2) Church Security Plan Template

3) Church Emergency Plan Template

4) A General Fire Safety Checklist

5) A Bomb Threat Checklist

6) A Bomb Threat Distance Chart:  Includes various types of explosive devises and to be referred to in an event of a bomb threat evacuation.  These are minimum distances to evacuate away from the area of explosion.

7) Facility Lockdown Checklist

These MS Word documents can be adapted as necessary to fit your church size and needs.  I will be adding new forms as time allows.

For a copy of any of these FREE forms, or if you have any questions, you can contact me at:

Integrity Security Consulting

Russ Sharrock 

405-762-2471 | integrityseccon@hotmail.com

Or message me on my personal FB account