LAKEPORT – The Lake County Superior Court's executive officer is asking the Board of Supervisors to move forward with installing weapons screening equipment at the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport.

The matter, included on the board's Tuesday agenda, is set for consideration at 10 a.m.

The board meeting begins at 9 a.m. at the courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., and will be televised on TV Channel 8.

Court Chief Executive Officer Mary Smith's written report to the board asks for approval to move forward with equipment installation to secure the courthouse buildilng.

“The ultimate goal of the project is to secure the fourth floor to provide a safe environment for our judges, employees, jurors, and the citizens who conduct business with our court,” Smith wrote. “It is also our goal to minimize the inconvenience to citizens, but at the same time, increase their ability to conduct their business in a safer environment.”

Equipment and staff would be paid for by the Superior Court or the state's Administrative Office of the Court, Smith reported.

In 2005 a state working group on court security found that 97 of the more than 450 court facilities in the state lacked weapons screening programs, Smith reported.

Among those 97 courts without screening programs were Lake County's two courthouses in Lakeport and Clearlake, she noted.

The state created a two-year program to add security to those courts, and set aside $18 million for security equipment. Some of those funds were used to start weapons screening at the Clearlake courthouse, which Smith reported began last June 4.

Since Clearlake began screening for weapons, they've found 926 rejected items, among them 526 folded-blade knives, 58 multi tools, 37 pairs of scissors, 19 cans of pepper spray, illegal drugs and 10 stun guns.

Of those rejected items court screeners confiscated a total of 34: 18 folding knives, four razor blades, two small sets of scissors, two punch knives, two multi tools, a corkscrew, a handcuff key, a fixed blade knife, an unspecified “pointed item,” a laser pointer and one large tool (the example given is a hammer).

Now in year two of the security program, Smith noted that 70 percent of the original, unsecured 97 court facilities have installed equipment and operate screening program.

Still requiring a full screening equipment suite and protocols is the Lakeport courthouse, Smith reported.

Smith reported that Mondays and Fridays are the court's busiest day, with an average of 300 people – from litigants to attorneys to the general public – plus 30 court staffers passing through the Lakeport courthouse's four courtrooms.

Tuesdays, when jury trials typically begin, is the next-busiest day, with an estimated 125 jurors on the fourth floor in addition to court staff, attorneys and litigants. Wednesday and Thursdays are unpredictable, she noted, with less than 100 people passing through if no trials are getting under way.

Smith's report offers three options for screening.

The first proposes securing the entire courthouse and installing weapons screening equipment at the Forbes Street entrance, with video surveillance cameras on exterior doors and electronic card locks securing all doors but the large set of wooden doors at the main entrance. This option has the most pros and the least cons according to Smith's analysis.

The second option suggests screening only those people who plan to access the fourth floor, with screening taking place on the first floor and one of the building's two elevators being used to take those individuals directly to the top-floor courtrooms without stops at other floors. This plan could become cumbersome because of the need to funnel so many people, with added hangups and delays should one of the two elevators be out of order.

The final option, which Smith rules out, is installing all weapons screening equipment on the fourth floor and limiting the screening to that area. Smith suggests this option contains the potential for a hazardous situation, especially if an emergency were to occur and they had to quickly move people around the bulky equipment.

The security system isn't perfect, said Smith, and wouldn't prevent injuries on the courthouse steps. However, it would help monitor who comes and goes from the building.

Smith, who worked in the Siskiyou County Courthouse where a murder-suicide took place, says the trauma of such an incident extends to the entire community.

She wrote to the board, “I realize that we are in essence asking you to give up some of those cherished freedoms but the trade off is that we would be providing the employees and citizens a safer environment to work and conduct their business.”

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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