Thanks to our southern correspondent:
Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Vestavia Hills is trying to establish its own police force.
The move requires approval from state lawmakers. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Arnold Mooney (R-Shelby County) cleared its first major hurdle Wednesday. The House Public Safety Committee gave its OK.
Briarwood Presbyterian Church calls this a way to create a safer campus in a fallen world.
Some lawmakers argue allowing a private church to have its own police force could begin a slippery slope.
“What do we do when other church affiliates come and ask for the same thing?” questioned Rep. Mary Moore (D-Birmingham). “They’re not a college. They’re a church and they’re a church asking for police jurisdiction.”
Many questions were posed during Wednesday’s committee meeting.
“Who do the officers answer to?” asked Rep. Chris England (D- Tuscaloosa).
“They would answer to the leadership of the section of the church,” a representative from the church answered.
Rep. Connie Rowe (R- Jasper) is a former police chief. She supports allowing Briarwood to create its own force.
“They will conduct their own investigations,” explained Rowe. “They will conduct their own security. They will make their own arrests and instead of calling on the local law enforcement agency to take over the particular situation they’re trying to control, they will do that themselves. All they will utilize from their other law enforcement agencies is their lock up facilities.”
At a time when the PCA is repenting of racism and Black Live Matters is calling for reform of the police, has not the word “optics” entered the PCA thesaurus?
Old Life 
Not Vatican-level, but getting there. One had an army, one wants a police force.
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Why would you want the liability or the payroll and then more liability. Briarwood PD shoots an unarmed black kid on scholarship……….news everywhere all the time. Then the talk show circuit. Wait. TKNY will want the diaconate to pick up the responsibility. So, we’ll have female cops shooting the minority kid on scholarship.
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This is insane. Why on earth would they want their own police force? This is a nightmare for colleges where accusations of coverup, etc… create all kinds of problems even when things are working well (think the ND police force). But on residential colleges, where you have 1000’s (10,000’s?) of unrelated people living on private property, a police force can be justified I suppose. But at a church? I see paying for their own security, and perhaps deputizing them for things like traffic control on Sunday mornings. But a full time private police force? This is nuts.
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So does this mean if Briarwood has a member who is doing something illegal then the Elders could just call their own police force and arrest them?
This is scary…
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Birmingham is 73.46% black. Demographics and crime rates are the subject you’re not allowed to discuss.
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Seems like Romans 13 gives this power to the state, huh.
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I think there is more to the PCA than just this church. But I don’t think that any church should have its own police force.
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