Gloucester Township police hold place of worship active shooter training

Gloucester Township police held a place of worship active shooter training Monday night.

"I know I keep it fresh on my mind," said Trudy Lowe. Dozens of people gathered at Bethel Church in Blackwood have a major concern. Their safety in their place of worship.

"I'm very aware of what's going on and the way the world is today," said George Daisey. He and Lowe are members of Erial Community Church. They came out tonight to a house of worship active shooter training put on by Gloucester Township Police for churches in the township. They also attended one here December of last year.

"When I sit in the church, Erial Church as I sit there when the door opens and the service is halfway through I get that look and make sure it's a friendly voice or person coming through that door. So I'm aware of how dangerous it can be," said Daisey. Organizers didn't want us recording a lot of the video presentations on school and church training plans for obvious reasons. But showed staged videos to see how well people can pick up on suspicious activity before anything happens.

"What's the one thing we always hear? Something didn't seem right, we know something was wrong or this guy was on the radar but we didn't do anything about it," said Lt. Mark Benton with Gloucester Township Police.

Chief Harry Earle says this time they added guest speakers with experience on improving security at places of worship.

"One speaking about how to survive and how to react from a civilian mindset and then also a group that specializes in mapping facilities so in the even there is an emergency they can have that information readily available," he said.