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| The church’s door locks could be easily retrofitted with CyberLock electronic cylinders |
Problem: Break-Ins, Thefts, and Vandalism
Seattle First Presbyterian Church was established in Seattle, Washington in 1869. The city has literally grown up around them and security has been an issue. The church proper encompasses one city block with seventeen doors that are points-of-entry. Jace Allen, Church Elder, says, “Our perimeters had been breached many times and we experienced vandalism and thefts of our sound and audio equipment. We wanted our church to be a safe place for our people in an unsafe environment so we were tasked with finding an access control solution.”
Solution: CyberLock
First Presbyterian chose CyberLock because their existing door locks could be easily retrofitted with CyberLock electronic cylinders. Allen says, “CyberLock offered the quickest and least expensive action we could take.” In March, 2008, they installed CyberLocks in the New Life Community ministerial area of the church. Next, they converted the high-tech Media Lab, Audio Equipment Room, and Sunday School Nursery to CyberLock. More recently, they installed CyberLocks in their newly renovated sanctuary. “The system is scaleable so we can easily expand into other areas of our facility,” adds Allen.
Their most trusted staff and volunteers are given an electronic key. If someone loses their key, it can be quickly blocked from accessing any locks. Before CyberLock, they looked at re-keying and found it to be an inadequate solution. After re-keying, they still would have had a system that could be compromised by the loss of one key. “With CyberLock, we will never have to re-key again. We especially like being able to program each person’s key to allow or restrict their access to specific areas at certain times of the day and week. The verifiable log of events the system provides allows us to monitor who is accessing what area and when,” says Allen.
“We could not be more pleased with the CyberLock system. I would recommend CyberLock to churches whether they are experiencing problems, or not. We should not wait to have the incident that is going to make us feel the weight of being culpable for not having done what we could have done up front,” affirms Allen.
