Our discussion centered around the concern that the Sheriff's Office is not able to consistently provide the amount of deputies needed for courtroom (and courthouse) security based on the expectation of some of the Judges and by direct observance from the supervisory staff of the Sheriff's Office. It is also a concern among the supervisory staff of the SO that the Sheriff's Office is not adequately staffed to handle other areas of courthouse security on certain days such as security screening, inmate transports, holding cell supervision, video monitoring, and parking deck security. We discussed that the amount of security needed for the higher courts (superior) has a direct effect on the availability of security for the lower courts and the other named areas, and thus all are interrelated in terms of security.
We continued our discussion on the need to schedule inmate court appearances/trials among the courts in such a manner that it is better coordinated to lessen those instances where a large volume of inmates are present at the courthouse at one time. This is being monitored at the present time as a result of discussions in previous meetings. It is of the opinion from staff of the Sheriff's Office that optimal coordination among the courts regarding inmate court appearances would be very helpful and result in a safer courthouse, but will not fully solve the staffing issues.
We discussed the option of transferring additional deputies into the Courthouse/Courtroom Security Unit from other sections and units of the Sheriff's Office. Often we have to pull deputies from the Warrant/Civil Unit to supplement the Courthouse/Courtroom Security Unit. Over time this results in a lack of production from the Unit that's being borrowed from and is therefore not a long term, viable solution to the problem. As far as reassigning additional deputies to the Courthouse/Courtroom Security Unit from other sections, we are minimally staffed in these other sections and are unable to reassign deputies.
We discussed a recommendation from the Sheriff's Office that a staffing analysis be conducted to determine the staffing needs of the courts and to determine the staffing needs for providing adequate security for the courthouse which includes security screening, inmate transports, holding cell supervision, video monitoring, and parking deck security. We discussed the importance of finding an independent entity with courthouse/courtroom security knowledge to conduct the study for objectivity purposes. It was agreed that the court administrators would take the lead in identifying this entity.
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