City Beefs Up Court’s Security

LINCOLN — Members of the public will walk through a metal detector when attending City Council meetings in the future.

The metal detector was installed for Lincoln District Court at the request of Judge Graham Nations, who asked the city to adopt a security policy that included the use of metal detectors, hand scans and search prior to allowing people to enter the courtroom.

Lincoln has adopted a new metal detection policy and the security measures will be used for Lincoln City Council meetings as well. Council meetings are held in the same room as District Court.

In addition to the metal detector, the city’s security policy also says all bags will be searched.

If a person fails the metal detection scan two times, a hand-held scanner will be used for an additional security measure.

The metal detector was in effect for the first time at the Council’s July 17 meeting, with Brian Key, assistant police chief, in charge of security for the meeting. A Lincoln police officer now stands at the doorway during City Council meetings.

During the meeting, Council member Johnny Stowers asked about using the metal detector for council meetings.

“Why do we have to have an airport grade security set-up for a council meeting?” Stowers wondered. “I understand for his courtroom.”

“The same thing could happen here just like anywhere else,” replied Council member Bobby McDonald, who works with Washington County Sheriff’s Office. McDonald told of a shooting that occurred at a city meeting in New York.

“Safety is safety,” he said, adding, “It’s already there and we have an officer there for our safety so why not use it.”

In developing a metal detection policy, the city of Lincoln looked at security policies used for Washington County Quorum Court, the county courthouse and the county detention center and made changes to fit Lincoln’s needs, said Al Videtto, city technology director.

Videtto said he attended a two-hour training session on using the metal detector and then trained Lincoln police officers.

Thursday, Nations said Lincoln District Court is in an old building and beefing up security helps everyone, not just him, to feel safer and more confident in the courtroom.

“The police do a good job but the idea was to get in front of any potential problems,” Nations said.

Nations presides over District Court in Prairie Grove, Farmington and Lincoln and in other courtrooms. He said he’s not had any problems at those places.

Prairie Grove already has a metal detector, though it is not used for City Council meetings.

Farmington’s courtroom is located in City Hall and Nations said he does not believe a metal detector is needed there because Farmington is “all hands on deck” when it comes to District Court.

“A lot of officers are on hand when court is in session,” Nations said.

Nations said he does not believe there will be problems but at the same time pointed out some cases involve situations where people’s emotions run high.

“In simply looking around the country, you see these things happen in court,” he said.