St. Thomas places a very high importance on protecting and securing the comfort of those that attend our services and programs. Foremost, our staff and volunteers in key ministries (e.g. ushers) have been trained through protective programs like "Sheep Dog" to insure peoples' safety in the event of a crisis, and/or how to recognize the precursors to such events to shut them down before they ever happen.
We are also blessed, and have invited and coordinated, with about 15 law enforcement agents that attend Mass here with their families, to be a part of our emergency action plan in the event of a crisis. Unlike an uniformed police officer, our law enforcement agents, who happen to be parishioners, as well, just blend in and never raise the question of, "Is something wrong, or going to happen because we have uniformed police officers here?" -- Quite the nice 'undercover' security blanket!
And, finally, in addition to our monitored security system and police panic buttons placed throughout the building, we do enlist the services of the Amarillo Police/Randall County Sheriff's Department for the weekend Masses and other special events throughout the year. Officers patrol the parking lots and are inside the building in case an emergency arises or even an accident happens where paramedics are needed; response time of the EMS has been much faster with the officers calling it in to dispatch, rather than a typical bystander. Yet, another comfort when someone needs quick attention and/or is in pain.