Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh set to add $150K in security funding

It costs a lot of money to keep houses of worship safe. Recently, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh approved new funding for the upcoming year, including a $150,000 increase in security.

It's a series of small things that work to keep people safe.

"Just making sure you have secure doors, secure windows, camera access, guards — all this stuff costs money. And then you add the training and the expenses, said Shawn Brokos, director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.  

Brokos says her team started with just two people.

"Over the years, it's morphed into a four-person team, and that's because our threat level in the Jewish community has escalated to the point where we need more support," Brokos said.

The new funding will help pay salaries for a deputy security director, a retired police lieutenant from the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, and an embedded intelligence agent.

Brokos tells KDKA Investigates that fully funding security for the greater Pittsburgh Jewish community costs about $1.5 million a year.

"We cover over 60 brick-and-mortar organizations," Brokos said. "We travel between them, do assessments, training, threat mitigation, and threat response."

Nationally, there have been nine attacks on the Jewish community since last May, and three thwarted attacks. Here in Pittsburgh, Brokos said, "Year to date, we're at 150 incidents. About halfway to where we were [at the end of] last year." 

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh's board approved more than $7.4 million in community campaign allocations for the coming fiscal year, including this $150,000 increase in community security funding, bringing that investment to $350,000 annually.