Colleyville: Yet Another Attack on a Faith-Based Organization

The incident that occurred at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas is different in that the assailant walked into the synagogue and took hostages. The confrontation came to an end many hours later with no loss of life other than that of the assailant. There is abundant open-source reporting about this incident and there is much to learn. As the investigation unfurls, there will be more information available on the attack planning, preparation, and motivation. Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) will consume the information with gusto so they can continue to learn and develop their preparedness plans and security response procedures.

There is great benefit from learning from our own organization’s incidents and exercises but great value can be gained from learning from others’ incidents and the events in Colleyville will provide valuable insights for both FBOs and law enforcement and other government personnel. The Faith-Based Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (FB-ISAO) encourages the broader community to learn from others’ experiences. The non-profit recently shared the 2021 Hostile Events Preparedness (HEPS) Workshop Exercise Series Findings Brief to help FBOs and their law enforcement partners learn from a series of exercises that the organization led last year. The program is expected to continue this year as well.

It is estimated that there are over 350,000 faith-based facilities in the United States. Their preparedness posture varies from excellent to undeveloped. A recent CNN post noted that faith-based communities will likely remain targets for violence, urging state and local partners to evaluate their security postures for mass gathering events and at houses of worship. As noted in the National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin issued on 10 November 2021,

“Historically, DVEs and individuals inspired by foreign terrorist organizations have targeted crowded commercial facilities, houses of worship, and public gatherings, which have at times caused mass causalities.”

For FBOs, evaluating their security posture is and must be a continual cycle.

Government agencies and local law enforcement try to disseminate information as widely as possible. Many faith traditions provide an excellent security backbone to support individual facilities’ preparedness initiatives. And, there are non-profits, like FB-ISAO, who provide members with information, analysis, and capabilities to help reduce risk while enhancing preparedness, security, and resilience. FB-ISAO is an all-faiths and all-hazards information sharing organization. There are also government programs such as the Non-Profit Security Grant program which provides grants to FBOs who are at risk for terrorist attacks.

By their nature, FBOs are vulnerable – just believing in something that someone else may not agree with heightens the risk nexus. There are ways to work to reduce, but not eliminate, risk. Post incident analysis of the events that unfolded at the Beth Israel Congregation show that the rabbi and congregation had received training – that’s a good thing. Their training enhanced their ability to mitigate the loss of life.

Banding together as a community is a good way to improve that security posture across all faiths, all-hazards, continually. One way to do that is by forming working groups. A Working Group is a group of experts working together to achieve specified goals around a specific subject area. Information Sharing Communities are another capability that can be employed for cross-sharing of threat information, security best practices and lessons learned.

As with all tragedies, when people reach out to others to share their experience, a conversation occurs and that conversation can lead to a very raw, but extremely powerful way of sharing information.

There’s always more to do. The threat from a physical attack will be and will remain as a high priority threat for FBOs. Participating in Hostile Event Preparedness Workshops can be eye-opening and can prompt an organization to take action on their security preparedness initiatives sooner rather than later. But the threat from cyberattacks is also evolving. Threat actors will find the weakest to prey upon, therefore, cyber awareness, should be a priority as well.

Whether they are dealing with physical security threats, cybersecurity issues, a pandemic or mother nature – across the all-hazards environment, FBOs would do well in adopting a “when” not an “if” approach to preparedness, security, and resilience. That is asking a lot, but here are resources to help! FB-ISAO, CISA and other components of DHS, the FBI, other non-profits like the Secure Community Network, and many others are working hard to help FBOs. Faith-Based Organizations have access to help, and they are stronger when they band together to become force multipliers.