The Arkansas Department of Public Safety has a grant called the Right to Worship Safely Grant Program which supports physical security enhancement and other security activity projects that serve to assist nonprofit ideology-based/spiritual/religious entities in the prevention, protection against, preparedness for, and response to terrorist threat(s) and/or other extremist attack(s). See more information at https://www.dps.arkansas.gov/who-is-dps/dps-research-and-planning/right-to-worship-safely-grant/

Eligible nonprofit ideology-based/spiritual/religious institutions/organizations must:

(1) Be designated as a 501(c)3 organization; and

(2) Have received an active terrorist threat(s) and/or extremist attack(s) in the past 36 months; and

(3) Indicate an established risk to the organization (threat, vulnerability, and consequence).

When I (Sheriff Massey) saw the above list, I had questions regarding requirement # (2) about receiving "active terrorist threat(s) and/or extremist attack(s)" because I do not know of any of these in Logan County.  So, I checked with the state and they said the following:

"The requirements are looking for any incident of a security breach or threat which could include theft, banning/barring someone from the property, terroristic threatening, breach of security in the children's, youth or adult area etc. We would need to show a verified need tied to an incident.

Examples: We had a church with some catalytic converter thefts which would fall under the guidelines. Additionally a church had an unauthorized adult enter their children's area due to lack of security. Both instances were documented and would meet the guidelines."

So, if your church had any events like theft, unauthorized entry, etc. then you can apply for this grant.  The Logan County Sheriff's Office does not have any involvement with the grant; we are just passing along the information.

Applications should be submitted via EMAIL by the nonprofit ideology-based/spiritual/religious institution/organization to the Department of Public Safety Research and Planning Division as a completed Adobe PDF file. The application deadline is 4:30 p.m. on September 30, 2024.  Applicants must also be located within the state of Arkansas.

More information: https://www.dps.arkansas.gov/who-is-dps/dps-research-and-planning/right-to-worship-safely-grant/