After Temple Israel attack, security classes offered for houses of worship

FOX 2 - The Oakland County Sheriff's Office is offering a class to houses of worship to teach congregations to be safe and secure.

The backstory:

The Temple Israel staff had recently had a safety class to handle an active shooter threat, which proved crucial last Thursday when it came under attack.

Sheriff Michael Bouchard said it was because of that training that more lives were saved. Bouchard had a class in December for leadership or safety teams at various houses of worship.

But since the attack at Temple Israel, there is much more of a need to train personnel in houses of worship.

"You should have a safety and security plan, and if possible, you should have a safety and security team in place," Bouchard said. "We've taught this. In December we taught houses of worship how to do both those things - how to get a plan and how to get a team in place.

"And we're going to be offering it again. That is one our social media page and we put it on a press release yesterday."

Related: Synagogue attack - FBI trained Temple Israel in active shooting response months before ambush

Former Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee, who is now a pastor, spoke about the security threat at religious locations.

"Our parishioners have been very understanding of security measures we take, because everybody realized especially in this day and time, terroristic activities are possible. We can never say never. We can hope for the best unfortunately we have to plan for the worst.

Priority will be given to religious institutions in Oakland, Oakland County, but after that it will be opened up.  

Some say religious organizations have stepped up security since the incident in Grand Blanc.

GO HERE for more information on Houses of Worship Security Training.