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Biography
Nick Tolson
National Churchwatch Co-ordinator
Specialist Areas: Personal Safety for Clergy & Church Crime
Other Areas: Security & Investigation
Nick Tolson is a former member of the RAF Police and was a Police Constable with the Hampshire Constabulary. In 1991 he became a virger in Wells Cathedral where he was tasked with keeping good order in church. In April 2000 he became the National Churchwatch Co-ordinator.
Nick is the UK’s leading expert in Personal Safety for Clergy and is the National Churchwatch Co-ordinator. He is currently advising the Church of England and Church in Wales about personal safety issues for their clergy and has advised the Home Office, the House of Lords and Heath & Safety Executive about Clergy Safety.
Nick runs more than 50 seminars a year for all Christian denominations on clergy safety and other church crime issues. He is a Suzy Lamplugh Trust Personal Safety tutor and is a qualified Adult Education teacher.
Nick is the author of “The Complete Security Book for Churches”, (published by Warminster Press) “The Pocket Book of Personal Safety for Clergy” and “ClergySafe”. (Published by Lulu Press) He has written many national newspaper articles, on TV & radio and is a regular contributor to Security Professional Magazine.
In 2007 Nick published “The Clergy Lifestyle Theory”, an academic work looking at the reasons for violence against clergy and some essential recommendations for dealing with it. It is now being used as a good example of the practical application of criminological theory by Universities around the UK.
As a former police officer Nick has assisted Dioceses and other church organisations in investigating issues such as hate letters, e mail abuse and other sensitive crimes that often involve church members. He gives advice on conflict management and methods of dealing with internal issues that are potentially criminal.
National Churchwatch History
National Churchwatch came into being following a national conference in 1999. With the support of Ecclesiastical Insurance and four other insurance companies National Churchwatch began to offer seminars to churches and other religious organisations in April 2000 after the appointment of Nick Tolson as National Co-ordinator.
Since this time National Churchwatch has run approx 60 seminars a year dealing with church security and the personal safety for churchworkers and clergy. They have advised the Home Office, the House of Lords, the Health & Safety Executive and many religious organisations since 2000.
Having started with mainly church security seminars the organisation now concentrates on personal safety after the realisation that there were no other organisations in the UK that could provide the specialist advice that churches need.
National Churchwatch is a non profit making company and intends to develop over the next few years to be able to advise even more church people about personal safety and to try and prevent yet more deaths, injury and problems.
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History 
