Proceed with caution on courthouse security plan

Giving up freedom in the vain search for security is a losing equation for Taylor County residents and taxpayers.

Taylor County board members must proceed with caution when it comes to putting an armed guard and metal detectors at the courthouse doors.

Under a proposal from the county’s security committee, the county would install a metal detector in the entrance doors near the clerk’s office and hire an additional armed sheriff’s deputy to screen everyone coming into the building.

Under the plan, those entering the courthouse would have to empty their pockets and have their bags searched and x-rayed to check for weapons before being allowed to enter the courthouse.

It is unclear if employees will also have to go through searches every time they enter the courthouse or if they will continue to be able to use key fobs to enter from other doors as they do now. At last week’s joint meeting of the executive and law enforcement committees, the sheriff suggested doing away with the fobs and have all access through the main floor entrance or the sheriff’s departments.

Many, much larger counties have already adopted similar security checkpoints with the smaller population counties continuing to hold out allowing the public to freely access what is fundamentally the people’s house.

The risk to the county by not doing anything is the chance, however remote that may be, that a deranged individual could decide to storm the building and take out employees who were trapped in their offices. The county holds annual active shooter trainings with staff and elected officials. Those drills end about as poorly as one could imagine.

Given that personal survival is not a high priority for madmen seeking to create mass casualty events, the main advantage of having an armed guard at the entrance would be that individual would be the initial victim rather than those working in the main floor offices and therefore increase the likelihood those in other parts of the sprawling building could escape.

An important factor for taxpayers is the ongoing cost related to creating a security checkpoint.

Members of the county’s executive and law enforcement committee meeting were assured the approximately $30,000 cost of the X-ray equipment, bullet proof glass and other equipment needed could come from bond forfeiture funds in the court budget.

This leaves about $70,000 a year in wages, benefits to hire a deputy to sit at the entrance and — judging by typical foot traffic in the building — play a lot of solitaire. In a county that sees board members constantly complaining about how tight the budget is, this ongoing expenditure seems like an extravagance rather than a pressing need.

While politicians are hesitant to raise this issue for fear of seeming to put dollars ahead of people’s lives, it is nonetheless a reality. Money spent on X-ray machines and armed guards is money that is not being spent addressing mental health, addiction and prevention or providing services to seniors, veterans or making sure roads are kept in repair.

This is not to say the county should not look at beefing up courthouse security on a case by case basis as they have done when there have been credible threats or heightened risks such as during high profile court cases.

The challenge facing county board members is in finding the appropriate balance between freedom and security and in living with the consequences of those decisions.