About

About:
I am one of the founders of Better Protectors, a training company that trains church safety teams with a ministry-first approach. I have been the Safety Director for Next Level Church in Ft. Myers. Florida, a multi-campus church that is one of the fastest-growing churches in the U.S. I also consult with churches of various sizes around the country.

This is my personal blog. The focus of it is safety and security as it pertains to churches and faith-based organizations.  (You can subscribe to avoid missing any articles.)

My goal is to help others in this field by providing some suggestions, and lessons learned and discussing current events. I feel that the field of church safety and security is still an under-served one and I hope that this blog will provide a resource for those in the field who often don’t have the budget to attend seminars.

My Top Posts:
If you’re new to my site, you might want to start with these articles, some of the most viewed articles from this site:
Calm is Contagious
Are you protecting from this threat?
It can’t happen here: 5 things people use to dismiss church safety programs
Situational awareness series: The OODA Loop
Above all else…

What I learned about church safety from Chick-fil-a

There were lights in the darkness

My biography:

Alan’s law enforcement experience covered local, state and federal agencies and included assignments as a detective, traffic homicide investigator, drug interdiction specialist and tactical team leader. He has extensive experience as a specialist in protective services, serving on the protective teams of numerous diplomats and government officials, both domestically and abroad.

During his career, Alan was a member of the SW Florida Multi-agency Gang Task Force, the South Florida Cargo Theft Task Force, the regional FBI Terrorism Task Force, as well as others.

Alan served as an instructor for law enforcement, corrections, and criminal justice professionals. He holds numerous specialty instructor certifications and is certified as a Gang Specialist by the Florida Gang Investigators Association. He’s certified as a field training officer, Red Cross CPR/First Aid/AED instructor, ALERRT Active Shooter Response instructor, ALERRT Civilian Response and Casualty Care Instructor, Stop the Bleed instructor, criminal justice driving instructor and an NRA pistol instructor, among other areas of training.

He has a bachelor’s degree in training and development, an associate’s degree in criminal justice and a certificate in emergency management and homeland security. He holds a practitioner designation in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and is certified as an Assessor for the Department of Homeland Security’s Best Practices for Anti-Terrorism Security (BPATS) program.

In the area of church safety, Alan has served as the safety director of a large, multi-campus church for a decade. He is also a founding member of the Safe Church Consortium of Southwest Florida and has been the group’s principal trainer since 2015. He consults for and trains churches of various sizes around the country.

Alan is a proud father and decorated veteran of the US Army. He likes bad dad jokes, and good coffee, and is a huge Star Wars fan. Alan loves his amazing wife, movies, reading, and Florida State Seminoles football.

If you’d like to connect with me, you can follow me on Instagram (@AlanH_FL) or email me at ahughes2@gmail.com.

If anything in this blog is helpful to you and your church, I’d love to hear about it.

Disclaimer: This is my personal blog. It’s not here to represent the official views of any organization or other person. The contents should not be considered as legal advice and I strongly advise you to follow the laws in your respective jurisdictions. There are my opinions and experiences and shouldn’t be construed as anything more.