As Lake County News reported earlier this week, Superior Court Executive Officer Mary Smith sent a staff report to the board seeking the new screening equipment.
In her report Smith set out three options for setting up the Lakeport courthouse with its new security system, with the best option appearing to be a first-floor setup where visitors would be checked at the main entrance and all other building entries would be secured by card locks.
Last summer, screening began at the county's South Lake courthouse in Clearlake, a process which had “gone quite smoothly,” Smith told the board Tuesday.
Accompanying Smith to the board meeting were Superior Court Judges Arthur Mann, Richard Martin and David Herrick; Malcolm Franklin, senior emergency response and security manager for the state's Administrative Office of the Courts; and FBI agent Rob Born, who made a presentation about security and domestic terrorism.
“We're not doing this for any other reason than to protect everybody who comes here to visit,” said Franklin.
Franklin has been involved in the process of adding to the security of 97 state courthouses which a 2005 study found did not have any form of perimeter screening. Those courthouses in question included both of Lake County's courthouses.
With Clearlake now conducting screening, just Lakeport remains to be secured. Franklin said the state will cover the equipment and staffing costs.
However, he said the trial court improvement funds which cover the project runs out at the end of this fiscal year. March was the cutoff for funding. “Time has really run out for these projects out of this fiscal year's funding.”
The issue of potential harm to the members of the judicial system is very real, said Franklin.
Last year, his office finished the first-ever study on judicial threats, looking specifically at the 2006 calendar year. They surveyed 1,609 judges, justices and commissioners statewide, with a 53-percent response rate. Of those, 296 reported receiving threats in 2006, of which 72 were determined to be imminent threats.
Franklin told Lake County News this week that several Northern California counties were among those where threats were reported, but he could not go into detail because those cases were part of active criminal investigations.
During Tuesday's meeting, Supervisor Denise Rushing said she had received input from the public both for and against the screening equipment, and she wondered aloud if they were giving in to fear and that, by putting the equipment into place, it might be part of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“Are we living in fear? I think to some degree we are,” said Franklin, who added that the security is simply something that's needed. “Its' just the environment we live in today.”
Supervisor Rob Brown said, for him, it came down to whether or not the security measures actually were needed. He said he had been reluctant to see screening begin at the Clearlake courthouse, but noted the screeners do a good job and aren't intrusive.
Brown said he believed people could smuggle in weapons if they are determined to do so. He added that he felt the fourth floor was the easiest area to secure.
Securing the fourth floor only had been one of Smith's three options, but she suggested in her report that it also carried potential risk, especially in an emergency situation, when it could become a hazard to try to move a lot of people around the screening equipment.
Born gave a lengthy presentation on terrorist activities, which for board members seemed the less likely option when looking for the source of an attack or assault at a local courthouse.
Brown said when he thinks of a person likely to cause trouble at the courthouse, it's the father of a molested child who plans to get even or an angry ex-husband.
Defense attorney Jason Webster, who said he represents indigent clients, said the risk to the safety of court employees and the public “is not a hypothetical issue.”
Webster – who said he had been threatened by clients – supported increasing the courthouse's security.
Brown, however, said the security measures weren't a solution to fear and offered “a false sense of security.”
“The threat of something happening is always out there,” he said.
Webster replied, “I guess I have a unique perspective in that I get to deliver the bad news to people who have committed a crime.”
He suggested that increased court security can help diffuse potentially explosive situations at key times when, had a person had access to a weapon, they might make a deadly decision. “I think taking the weapons out of their hands for those few minutes is worthwhile.”
Judge Richard Martin said it's important to offer a safe working environment to court personnel and county employees.
Martin said some of the most irate people he has encountered in the courthouse haven't necessarily been coming from a courtroom – some of them had just been at the planning department counter. “It doesn't have to be somebody who's a murderer.”
Ed Fisher, who oversees the Clearlake courthouse's screening, told the board he's seen firsthand how stopping weapons from coming into the courthouse can change attitudes. He said he and Judge Steve Hedstrom have discussed how the atmosphere in the courtroom seems to relax thanks to the added measure of safety.
Rushing said Webster's argument was, for her, the most persuasive. She added, however, that it was sad that the times require the measures.
“I know I'm going to catch grief over this but I don't support securing the entire courthouse,” said Brown, who quipped that the building contained more Marines amongst its employees than the U.S. Embassy.
Brown was the dissenting vote in the board's 4-1 decision to move forward with installing the equipment.
Smith said the equipment for Lakeport's courthouse will cost $160,000, with staffing – a mixture of specially hired security personnel and sheriff's staff – costing $211,000 annually.
Overall, equipment for both courthouses cost just under $242,000, Franklin said Friday. The breakdown for Clearlake is $27,727 for the camera system and $26,885 for the access system/card reader; for Lakeport, cameras cost $48,962 with the access system priced at $65,951. In addition, the screening equipment for both courthouses totals $74,000.
Smith said she's hopeful the equipment will be installed quickly, within the next three to four weeks.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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