By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – According to media reports on Wednesday the Naperville Police Chief Jason Arres of Chicago suburbs outlined the security measures during an interfaith “Dialogue on Hate Crimes” held at Wesley United Methodist Church.
The alleged plot to attack a Hindu temple in Aurora was foiled, police in Naperville, a Chicago suburb with a large Indian American population, have added patrols at religious sites and are offering free security assessments to places of worship, media reported.
The gathering was attended by over 50 people from at least 7 faith communities.
“We have a group that will come in and does assessments of your places of worship,” Arres said.
“Everything from where you have cameras, if you need them, where you may even trim bushes or add lighting to keep [your facility] safe, all kinds of free things that we’ll do to help the security of our community.”
He encouraged faith leaders to take part in the department’s free Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events course.
“If you see something suspicious, if you’re worried about something, you’re not bothering us, and it’s okay to call 911 in those situations,” he said.
The event was organized by United for Peace and the Naperville Interfaith Leaders Association, after the alleged plot targeting the Sri Venkateswara Swami Balaji Temple in Aurora on October 11, the first day of Navaratri.
Shalini Gupta, a board member of United for Peace said “The manifesto the shooter had expressed hate towards many communities and the Jewish community, African Americans, Indians, and others”.
Naperville Mayor Scott Wehrli said: “There was an attempted attack on our residents, members of our community, who were at a Hindu temple in Aurora, by somebody who was full of hate and all sorts of ideas that our community just does not tolerate.”
“I find it ironic that hate has brought us together here to have real community conversations, but those conversations have to continue not just when tragedies occur,” he said.
Saily Joshi, a Naperville resident, said: “To see that happen so close to home, it was scary, that’s a temple that our family goes to.”
