Leslie Collins
Northeast News
May 11, 2011

“Financially is where it hits you hard,” said Pastor Barry Chandler.

Chandler’s church, Calvary Temple Church, St. John Avenue, has faced the brunt of burglaries.

In April, four air conditioning units at the church’s day care center were damaged when copper was ripped from the units. Repairs cost $5,000.

Calvary Temple isn’t alone.

Last month, four churches within Kansas City Police Department’s East Patrol Zone were burglarized.

Three of the incidents involved air conditioning unit thefts and one involved damaged musical instruments.

“These (church burglaries) are becoming more and more of a problem because criminals know churches aren’t occupied but a few days a week typically,” East Patrol Community Interaction Officer Jason Cooley said.

East Patrol Property Crimes Supervisor Sgt. Keith Ericsson began noticing an increase in church burglaries in March and brought it to Cooley’s attention.

“The price of metal has been up for awhile now, so we’ve been dealing with these issues,” Cooley said. “With the economy the way it is, there’s a lot of folks out of work. Some of those folks may turn to crime.”

Chandler said this isn’t the first time the church has dealt with air conditioning unit thefts.

“This is the second or third time we’ve had to replace some of them,” he said of the units at the day care center.

Air conditioning units at the food pantry have been damaged or stolen five times within the last five years, he said.

“We also offer an after-school program and what’s sad is without AC, it affects the programs we try to offer this community,” Chandler said.

Sometimes the church won’t report the thefts to its insurance company in fear of increased rates or dropping coverage altogether, he said.

To deter criminals, Calvary Temple has spent a chunk of money amping up its security, like installing cages around air conditioning units, increasing the number of surveillance cameras and improving lighting, he said. Calvary’s also thinking about installing motion sensor lights, a gated area and special locks. Recently, the church hired a local company to conduct a security survey to provide additional tips.

To aid churches in burglary prevention, East Patrol mailed 200 letters to area churches, warning them of the increased burglaries and offering security tips. Cooley is encouraging churches to form a coalition of pastors to work with the police department to share information about suspicious persons and incidents.

In addition, East Patrol is offering free crime prevention through environmental design surveys to churches, which provides individualized security tips. No church has asked for the survey yet.

“A lot of folks’ mindset is reactionary. They think it won’t happen to me or they’ll just deal with it when it happens,” Cooley said. “Maybe churches operating on a smaller budget don’t want to front the money to improve lighting or fencing or anti-theft devices for air conditioning units, whatever the case may be.”

However, churches are listening. Recently, eight area pastors invited Cooley to a meeting to discuss the burglary issue.

“I was able to speak my mind and my heart and they were very receptive,” Cooley said. “It looks like we’re going to be able to get that stuff rolling.”