Sheriff proposes overhaul in court security

It’s been just over a week since a man took his own life in the Burke County Magistrate’s Office. The incident has left some who deal with the courthouse clamoring for tighter security.

No one had been shot inside the Burke County Courthouse before the Feb. 10 incident, and Sheriff Steve Whisenant said if a proposal he finalized Friday is adopted, it will never happen again.

The proposal addresses the gaps that allowed the man to get a gun into the courthouse and close other potential security holes, according to the county’s top lawman.

Among the proposed changes is a recommendation to modify the N.C. Probation Office where all visitors would have to come through the main entrance. It currently has a separate entrance that bypasses the metal detector.

Whisenant said that if the man who shot himself was screened at the metal detector before going to see his probation officer, the gun would have been confiscated before he hurt himself.

The changes need the approval of the Burke County Board of Commissioners and could cost local taxpayers, but Whisenant said you can’t put a price on safety.

At the top of Whisenant’s proposed changes is the hiring of four additional deputies whose sole duties would be courthouse security.

Capt. Scott Rogers, who is in charge of courthouse security, said the 10 deputies assigned to the courthouse are often stretched thin and aren’t enough to respond to a major incident.

He explained that those deputies act as bailiffs, transport officers and security.

“It’s really easy to run out of deputies on a busy day,” Rogers said.

Each courtroom needs at least one bailiff when court’s in session — two for jury trials and grand juries — and several spend all day ferrying prisoners from the county’s two jails.

It’s common for courtrooms to go without bailiffs for short spurts when there are too many inmates for the other deputies to handle.

Rogers said sometimes courtrooms get emotional, especially during verdicts in difficult cases. In those cases, they need all available officers in the room in case those emotions get out of control.

Whisenant said it’d be “chaos” without courtroom security.

When the x-ray machine is installed, Whisenant said it will take four deputies to provide courthouse security. One officer will man the metal detector, another will watch the x-ray machine and a third will pull people aside when a more thorough search is required, such as using a metal detector wand. The fourth would monitor security footage from the courthouse cameras.

Whisenant said without adding four new officers, situations will arise where deputies have to choose between watching the front door or meeting some immediate need.

Other proposed changes include:

» Installing additional security cameras

» Placing several Plexiglas barriers in the courthouse, including one behind prosecutors in courtroom two.

» Installing an improved radio system, with deputies in the courthouse communicating through ear pieces and each office in the courthouse getting a radio for emergencies.

» Adding audible alarms to all exit-only doors.

Whisenant said he doesn’t need to wait for a vote for a handful of procedural changes.

A big change he’d like to put in place is having a more evenly spread caseload.

Rogers said there have been days where more than 1,000 people were on the docket for infractions court and more than 300 people scheduled for district court appearances.

Those days overwhelm efforts to screen courthouse visitors and provide courthouse security, he said. It also poses as a fire code violation.

Most days have slimmer dockets, however, and Whisenant said better planning can spread out the number of people coming into the courthouse and possibly prevent incidents.

The sheriff said he’s working with the District Attorney’s Office and the Office of the Clerk of Court to try and coordinate that solution.

Whisenant has already put several other changes into place.

Doors to stairwells from the magistrate’s office and the probation office are now locked. Before, people could bypass the metal detector at the main door by entering through one of these alternate entrances, which are located in the basement and are accessed from the parking lot.

The community service office can now only be accessed from probation.