Cumberland County Sheriff offers worship security training for faith leaders
County faith leaders trained on armed-threat response, Run-Hide-Fight and permit-to-carry rules as the sheriff pushed prevention before an emergency. The free sessions ran through May in Bridgeton.
Cumberland County Sheriff Michael Donato offered free house-of-worship security training in Bridgeton for clergy, church leaders and designated security team members. The sessions continued through May and drew representatives from across Cumberland County.
Retired New Jersey State Police Lt. Mark Rowe led the program. Rowe brought 34 years in law enforcement to the class, including work as a detective, a crisis negotiator and a member of the Federal Fugitive Task Force for 10 years before he retired as a task force commander. He also worked with the Vineland Police Department. Donato said the office had already offered several similar trainings and that the response had been strongly positive, with demand so strong his phone was "blowing up" after the program was first offered.
The curriculum covered national and regional statistics, recent attacks on faith-based institutions, actual incident footage, how armed individuals behave, interaction with local law enforcement, intervening in and detaining individuals, equipment recommendations, Run-Hide-Fight principles for an active shooter incident and an overview of applying for a New Jersey Permit to Carry. New Jersey State Police instructions require approved concealed-carry applications to be renewed every two years and include CCARE training requirements.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's guide calls attacks on houses of worship a real and potentially growing problem and is based on analysis of 10 years of targeted attacks. CISA recommends emergency action plans, vulnerability assessments, community readiness, physical security measures and cybersecurity safeguards while preserving the open and welcoming character of worship spaces. A U.S. Department of Homeland Security flyer links faith-based safety to the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting initiative and the "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign.
In the FBI’s latest hate-crime statistics, law enforcement agencies reported 11,679 hate crime incidents involving 14,243 victims in 2024, and religion accounted for 23.5% of single-bias hate-crime victims.
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