Would You Tell?

[thatguyoverthere]

As most of us know, with the recent change in Texas law and with recent events in Texas, many churches (especially smaller ones) are getting more active in trying to provide some kind of volunteer security force.

The small church that I attend is no different. We do already have something currently in place that I am involved with now, but we're going to be getting it more formalized and more "official." The plan is still in the talking stages right now, so nothing finalized, yet.

Our pastor is getting our small town police chief involved, by having him look over our campus and helping to point out possible security weaknesses, and to get him to suggest ideas for improvement. The chief has also volunteered to come up with a basic training program to offer to our church members who volunteer for this effort. Sounds great so far.

But here's part of the rub for me. Since both the pastor and the police chief know that at least part of the volunteer security team will consist of LTC armed personnel, the chief has asked the pastor to put together a list of names and photos of the LTC carriers in the church and forward that to him (to the chief). The reasoning is that if something were to actually happen and require an emergency police response, the chief wants to have photos to help him recognize who the good guys are.

I do think the chief's intentions are good and honorable. And obviously he thinks this is a good idea. But, me - not so much. I don't really think that having a fistful of photos would be too useful to him if it actually came down to crunch time.

But the main problem for me is, I'm just not really wild about giving my name and photo and LTC info to anybody that I don't have to, even if it is for a good cause. Not that I have anything to hide, but still....

Now, remember this is a small town, small church and small police force. It's sort of an "open secret" who does and does not carry in our church anyway. So even if I were to go along with this, it's not like I'm giving up any Top Secret information!

So what do y'all think? Would you put the brakes on this and bow out gracefully, or would giving your name and photo identifying yourself as an LTC carrier to a local small town LEO (who probably already knows anyway) be no big deal to you?

[spectre]

I wouldn't tell and I wouldn't join the official security team.

[OneGun]

I wouldn't tell and I wouldn't join the official security team.

[Lynyrd]

Having your LTC is no secret from any LEO. So telling them doesn't bother me. But I agree that a bunch of photos in a small town police office isn't going to help much in the event of someone melting down.

[J.R.@A&M]

This scripture comes to mind: “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.”

[Soccerdad1995]

I wouldn't tell and I wouldn't join the official security team.

[montgomery]

I wouldn't tell and I wouldn't join the official security team.

[lildave40]

This reminds me about the list the Nazis did.

[Oldgringo]

Nope, nope, nope! Police Chiefs and police staff changes.

In the unlikely, heaven forbid, event that a situation arose requiring a police intervention, it would probably happen at a time when the chief was off duty and/or at his own church or fishing or something.

[Pariah3j]

Why does he need your photos if he is going to be training with yall? He'll already know your faces at that point.

I'd let my objections be know on the grounds you stated here and if that's a deal breaker, then bow out. You never know, there might be others of like mind in your group that just haven't said as much.

[bblhd672]

This is the second time this has come up on the forum recently where local police asked the church pastor to provide list of LTC holders in the church.

Too coincidental for me, somewhere this is being recommended to police officials who are asked by churches about increasing security.

It's not the church's or pastor's business who in the church has an LTC, certainly not for the purpose of providing a list of LTC's to local law enforcement.

[thatguyoverthere]

This scripture comes to mind: “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.”

Wow, J.R., that's weird. I just read that passage just this morning! Hadn't thought of it in that context, though. Something to think about, for sure.

[thatguyoverthere]

Thanks for all the replies, folks. All good points to consider.

[C-dub]

Having your LTC is no secret from any LEO.

Why do you think this?

[Lynyrd]

Having your LTC is no secret from any LEO.

Why do you think this?

If they run your DL# it will show them immediately that you have your LTC. Or at least that's what I've been told.