Keeping the Courts Safe

Only one courthouse in Orange County has airport-style detectors to spot weapons--the one housing Juvenile Court and Family Court in the city of Orange. The detectors turned up a staggering 3,800 “contraband” items in the first eight months of this year, including 2,200 knives, two firearms, an air pistol, stun guns and more than 300 containers of Mace or pepper spray. Although it is legal to possess these weapons, none are allowed in a courthouse. Given these seizures, it is understandable that judges and other workers at the main county courthouse in Santa Ana also want metal detectors and X-ray devices.

Supervisor Don Saltarelli rightly has called for funding a security system as soon as possible. However, even before the county bankruptcy, a security system proposed by the grand jury was considered too expensive to operate. So the number of X-ray machines for the Santa Ana facility has been trimmed from the six recommended by the grand jury several years ago to four proposed now under a plan backed by judges. But it would still cost an estimated $700,000 or more for the 19 deputy marshals needed to operate the system at the building’s four screening stations.

Given the seizures at the Betty Lou Lamoreaux Justice Center, the facility in Orange, it is prudent to wonder what weapons are being carried into the 11-story Santa Ana court building.

Saltarelli has suggested that the county tap a $100-million reserve account to pay for the security system at the central courthouse. The account was designed to fund the county’s short-term cash needs between tax collection periods. But if some method could be found to use part of the fund to improve security at the courthouse, it would be money well spent.