Late Friday afternoon, April 25, Jewish Community Center President and CEO Jacob Schreiber sent an email to members, and media, updating them on the progress of the building’s security upgrade.
As reported in the April 24 edition of The Chronicle, Jewish communal leadership has been actively engaged in discussions with local authorities including the Overland Park Police Department, as well as national security experts including the FBI, Homeland Security and the Secure Community Network of national Jewish organizations, to pinpoint additional ways to best safeguard all who visit the Jewish Community Campus.
In the email, Schreiber told members, “An armed presence, some of it visible, will be present indefinitely in and around our facility during the majority of our operating hours.” He declined to comment further when asked to provide more details.
Schreiber also reported that a Jewish community security director “will be hired as soon as possible to upgrade and manage a comprehensive security operations plan for the JCC and other Jewish community institutions.”
This week, representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Overland Park Police Department met at the Campus to identify structural and operational ways to enhance security.
“This will allow us to make some immediate upgrades, apply for Homeland Security funds to make capital improvements to our security infrastructure and set us on a course for ongoing structural and operational enhancements,” Schreiber said.
Homeland Security will also be here on May 30 to host a day-long workshop for community officials responsible for the security of their respected institutions.
More in-depth staff training workshops are also on the horizon, as is a “See Something, Say Something” awareness campaign and a crisis communications network.
