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Lessons in Situational Awareness from Columbo

Columbo was an American crime drama television series starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. The show aired on NBC from 1971 to 1978 and on ABC from 1989 to 2003.

[ Read SemperVerus articles on the subject of Situational Awareness ]

In the series, Columbo is a seemingly every-day homicide detective who wears a rumpled beige raincoat and projects a casual, polite, warm, charming, respectful, humble, deferential, patient, soft-spoken, and unassuming demeanor, all of which are a disguise for extremely shrewd and intelligent situational awareness. He often leaves a room only to return with the catchphrase, “Just one more thing” to ask a critical question.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Gentle Response De-Escalation Training for Church Security Teams ]

Along with another keenly observant detective—Sherlock Holmes—Columbo embodies an innate, probing, and continuous curiosity about his surroundings. He is an excellent model for us to emulate in how to be unceasingly alert when we are in public.

A Prayer for Church Security Team Members

Being a volunteer member of your church security team is a demanding responsibility. You invest considerable time, effort, and expense training and learning as much as you can to be able to properly respond to any emergency that may occur during a gathering of your church.

[ See the SemperVerus list of links to Church Security Training Resources ]

One excellent training opportunity is Sheepdog Church Security, which offers a certification program that covers Security Team Fundamentals, Active Shooter Response, Deescalating Disruptive Persons, Protecting Children from Abuse, Use of Force Laws, Arson and Fire Safety, Storms and Disasters, and Mass Trauma Emergency.

[ Read articles in the SemperVerus category of Church Security ]

Since attention to church safety and security encompasses so many physical—as well as spiritual—dangers and threats, here’s a prayer by SemperVerus^® you may want to say every time you start your security team volunteer shift:

SemperVerus Named In Top 50 of Feedspot’s List of Tactical Blogs

Using search and social metrics on Google and media platforms, Feedspot has declared SemperVerus number 35 among the Top 50 Tactical Blogs on the internet.

According to Feedspot, the judging criteria include a blog’s

Relevancy
Freshness (frequency of posting)
Domain authority
Google reputation and Google search ranking
Influence and popularity on social media sites
Quality and consistency of posts and
The assessment of Feedspot’s editorial team and expert review.

Feedspot’s review of SemperVerus is: “An impressive blog with high quality and useful content.”

SemperVerus (meaning Stay True) is your catalyst to inform, inspire, persuade, impel, and invigorate; sparking you to positive action through 5 main strategic principles—prepare, aware, be, know, do—and 1 tactical element (self-defense). Bookmark this SemperVerus blog homepage and return often to read the latest helpful articles. And enter your email address into the box at the bottom of blog posts to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

By semperverus
Posted on 02/23/202308/15/2025

Church Security: Radio Communications Best Practices

Read this article to learn best practices in radio communications for church security teams When multiple people act as a security team for an activity or event, such as a church service, staying informed with each other is a vital part of the defense plan. Employing two-way radios with ear pieces and push-to-talk (PTT) microphones is a subtle, non-intrusive method to accomplish the goal. The Golden Rules of radio operation are

Clarity — speak slightly slower than normal and avoid shouting
Simplicity — use simplified language and shortcut phrases
Brevity — messages should be short and concise
Security — assume more people are listening than only the one to whom you’re speaking.

For effective radio communication, the following specific procedures should be followed. Identify first, by name, the recipient, then second, your name. Once they acknowledge your transmission, proceed with your conversation until it’s complete. Here’s an example:

Portable 5: “Base 23, this is Portable 5. Over”
Base 23: “Portable 5, this is Base 23. Over.”

Portable 5: “Base 23, I have returned from job 734. Are there any messages? Over.”
Base 23: “Portable 5, you have 3 messages. Over.”

Portable 5: “Base 23, I will select them at 1600. Over.”
Base 23: “Roger, Portable 5. This is Base 23. Out”