Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post 03 October 2023

These updates are shared to help raise the situational awareness of Faith-Based organizations to best defend against, and mitigate the impacts from all-hazards threats including physical security, cybersecurity, and natural disasters. 

3 more cities investigating string of Latter-day Saint church burglaries

The investigation into a recent rash of break-ins and vandalism at meetinghouses of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is expanding in the Salt Lake City greater metro region.

Last week, Herriman police reported 22 church burglaries believed to have happened sometime between Sept. 20 and Sept. 22. Now, West Jordan police, South Jordan police and Riverton police say they are investigating close to dozen similar incidents in their jurisdictions during the same time frame.

According to authorities “The person, or group, has been entering the churches by damaging the main door handles. Once inside, a few offices have also been broken into. But again, no money was taken. A few items inside the churches have also been “overturned,” and while the damage at each site has been somewhat minimal, detectives say the combined damage is in the area of $100,000. Two Idaho teenagers were recently arrested for similar acts of vandalism targeting LDS buildings.

Analyst Comments:

For those who have not seen, the Faith-Based ISAO’s website provides resources in the Resource Library, one of which is the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) guidance on Mitigating Attacks on Houses of Worship Security Guide which offers a good security framework that can help organizations solidify their physical security posture.

ADL: Hate in the Prairie State: Extremism & Antisemitism in Illinois

This report explores a range of extremist groups and movements operating in Illinois and highlights the key extremist and antisemitic trends and incidents in the state in 2021 and 2022. It also includes noteworthy events and incidents from the first half of 2023. 

There is no single narrative that tells the story of extremism and hate in Illinois. Instead, the impact is widespread and touches many communities. As in the rest of the country, both white supremacist and antisemitic activity have increased significantly over the last two years, but that’s not the whole story.

ADL’s research additionally shows a continued threat to Illinois’s women’s health facilities, which have been targeted with arson and other violent plots by anti-abortion extremists. This reflects the broader, national threat to reproductive rights. 

Analyst Comments:

Research reports such as this help provide enhanced situational awareness about the latest threats to our organizations. While the research is specific to Illinois, mainly of these themes are seen in communities across the U.S. Earlier this year, FB-ISAO partnered with Patrick Henry College’s Strategic Intelligence Program to track hostile events targeting faith-based organizations after the Dobbs Supreme Court ruling.