The Carrollton City Council values community engagement, and added it as a priority on this year’s list of Council’s strategic goals. In order to work toward the City’s continued goal of public safety sustainability while engaging the community, the City recently created and held a Safety & Security Summit for Faith-Based Organizations.

This inaugural summit provided an opportunity for the faith-based community leaders in Carrollton to come together and build stronger relationships, as well as access City expertise and resources to solve problems, create action plans, and focus on what matters most.   

The safety summit was held on Saturday, February 10, and the information presented was targeted to the leadership of all houses of worship in Carrollton. In hopes of beginning important security discussions and making the various leadership mindful of safeguards for their facilities and congregations, members of City staff encouraged them to be prepared for not just emergencies, but all safety and security concerns.   

In the spirit of the event, the production was a true team effort. City of Carrollton Executive Director of Public Safety Rex Redden worked with Pastor Bill Lovell of Christ Church Carrollton to bring approximately 60 faith leaders together to attend the discussion. When the event outgrew the Carrollton Police Department headquarters’ capacity, First Baptist Carrollton graciously offered to host. 

“This is a very influential group of people and the combined influence on future endeavors could be tremendous,” said Redden. “Together, as a team, we can network and develop strategies to do our best to keep our churches and our community safe. We want to enable members of each congregation to eliminate fear and be focused on best practices, not just for emergency situations, but for all safety and security concerns. To our knowledge, this was the largest gathering of faith leaders in the history of Carrollton and we look forward to continued success in the future.”

For more information, visit cityofcarrollton.com/police.

Take a look at the summit from February, 10.