Pulaski County Courthouse Security Discussions Continue

Pulaski County officials continue to discuss potential courthouse security upgrades. A list of recommendations was presented to the county council and commissioners over a year ago, but little progress has been made since then.

During last week’s council meeting, Council President Jay Sullivan said there are still some things to be discussed. “We’ve had some ideas,” he told Circuit Court Judge Michael Shurn. “We’re talking about some stuff, so we need to get it all coordinated together with the sheriff and council and the commissioners. So we’re thinking about some stuff to help you out.”

“And you’d asked us to create a committee, and we had a committee,” Shurn replied, “and so we’re willing to be a part of that and help you think through it, if you want.”

Shurn has been calling for the county to revive its security efforts, after a recent uptick in courtroom violence. “It’s not criminals, really,” he explained. “It’s the civil cases where you take somebody’s kid away from them and they have to pay child support, or you take somebody’s kid away from them in a termination of parental rights. In court today, we had a child in need of services case, and the attorney asked for security in relation to the mother, and then she ended up just screaming and ranting and raving. And so I had three officers in court today. It’s, unfortunately, more and more common.” Shurn also pointed out that many courthouse workers often have to deal with angry residents.

Among other recommendations, the committee called for a single point of entry with a metal detector, as well as a few guards to monitor the entrance. Sheriff Jeff Richwine has offered to pay for the metal detector out of his Commissary Fund, but so far, money hasn’t been found for the additional staff. “We sent out a memo to everybody in October of 2016,” Shurn said. “So people are sort of scared to death. I guess that is money. I had it in my budget, just to get the talk going, and it was cut out. So, some point in time, we need to consider what we’re going to do.”

Judge Shurn offered to continue discussing courthouse security plans with council members next month.