Balancing safety concerns with fiscal responsibility engendered several split votes by the county board on April 9, 2013.
In March, the board approved the installation of security cameras, duress buttons, and an intercom system at all county buildings and a computerized keycard access system at the courthouse. At that meeting, the board postponed a decision on purchasing a walk-through metal detector and an X-ray machine for items people carry with them and hiring bailiffs to operate them and provide security at the courthouse as recommended by the Cook County Security Committee commissioned after the December 2011 courthouse shooting.
A citizen speaks
During the public comment period, Grand Marais resident Jerome Brandt expressed opposition to the installation of security cameras in the community center and an X-ray machine in the courthouse lobby and hiring law enforcement officers to screen people entering the courthouse. “The direction the county has taken has me concerned,” he said.
Brandt indicated he was concerned that officers would be harassing, intimidating, and bullying people when they entered the courthouse and that public boards including county, hospital, and school would become “arrogant bullies” who believe they have a mandate to spend money, robbing taxpayers to fulfill “extravagant, utopian dreams.”
Lots of people are struggling to pay their property taxes, Brandt said, as evidenced by lists of tax-forfeited land in regional newspapers. “Are they going to lose their homes to foreclosures, bankruptcies? I don’t think this is the way to go. I think we need to have mercy on people who are struggling,” Brandt said. “To see them lose their homes is heart-wrenching. My advice is to have mercy on the poor.”
At this meeting, Sheriff Mark Falk, chair of the security committee, recommended to the county board either of two options—one for a full-time deputy to screen people entering the courthouse during court hours and during “any other highly charged events or high-risk events,” plus the equipment needed to screen them, and the other for two full-time deputies to screen people entering the courthouse during regular courthouse hours, plus the equipment needed to screen them. These measures were recommended by a security consultant the county hired after the courthouse shooting.
The total cost to the county for each deputy, if they were entry-level, would be $60,000. Their duties would also include screening mail, regularly inspecting the building and property, and conducting safety drills with courthouse employees.
Falk said people would not be walking through the X-ray machine. Putting a hand in the machine would be the equivalent of a getting a dental X-ray, he said, but people would not be putting their hands in the X-ray machine—only their handbags and things they had with them.
Falk said only people with pacemakers could be negatively affected by a metal detector, and that would be minimal. According to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration website, “Passengers who have internal medical devices should not be screened by a metal detector and should instead request to be screened by imaging technology or a pat down.”
Sheriff Falk said the FBI was offering Cook County a 20-year-old Miniscan II X-ray machine for free. A new one he had recommended was quoted at $22,000 plus setup and training. A walk through metal detector was quoted at $2,750.
Commissioner Garry Gamble recognized what the people who experienced the courthouse shooting went through, saying, “I have deep appreciation for what I don’t know.” He said a lot of violence happens outside courtrooms and suggested that resources be spent to reduce the risk factors for violence in individual people’s lives.
“It appears we are using more and more of the public’s money to protect ourselves from the public,” Gamble said. “We must ask ourselves, should we who serve the public, using the public’s money to do so, be entitled to everything we want or say we need when those we serve are not afforded the same option?”
In a later interview, Gamble said he hoped the board would spend money where it would be most effective.
Sheriff Falk said they have an obligation to protect people, and it’s his job. “There’s not going to be another shooting in this office while I’m sheriff,” he said, adding that people can vote him out if they think he’s not being fiscally responsible.
“It’s far less friendly to get shot and come within 30 seconds of dying than it is to walk through a metal detector…,” Attorney Scannell said. They pay experts—sheriff, judge, county attorney, consultants—to make recommendations, he said, and the county board should heed them rather than micromanaging areas in which they are not experts. “There are bad people in this county who do bad things,” he said.
Commissioner Sue Hakes said she had been to numerous security trainings, all of which included recommendations that the county take extra security measures. “I was in the building. You can’t imagine what it was like,” she said of the courthouse shooting. “The cost to provide extra security is minimal in comparison to the cost of someone else getting hurt.”
Commissioner Bruce Martinson said they can’t totally prevent violence. Hakes countered that they can’t, but they can do some things to prevent it.
“There isn’t one of us that doesn’t believe we need to do something,” said Gamble. “It’s how we do it.”
Piecemeal votes
By a vote of 3-2, the board passed a motion authorizing Sheriff Falk to either obtain the free X-ray machine from the FBI or purchase one. Voting aye were Bruce Martinson, Garry Gamble, and Heidi Doo-Kirk and voting nay were Jan Hall and Sue Hakes, who preferred a motion that would include the staffing needed for the security equipment.
A motion to hire a fulltime deputy and obtain the recommended security equipment failed 2-3, with Hall and Hakes voting aye and Martinson, Gamble, and Doo-Kirk voting nay. Immediately after this vote, Sheriff Falk and Attorney Scannell left the meeting.
Commissioner Doo-Kirk made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Martinson, to authorize the sheriff to hire a part-time licensed peace officer to assist the two bailiffs that will be in the courtroom on court days. The board discussed the fact that they had not made clear how many hours a week a part-time security officer would work.
Commissioner Hall said they can’t tell the sheriff how to do his work. Commissioner Hakes said danger exists even on noncourt days and she believed they made “an extremely poor decision.”
Doo-Kirk amended her motion to be less specific, saying they were authorizing the sheriff to have additional licensed peace officer staff on hand on court days to assist the bailiffs.
Commissioner Gamble recommended that they take the motion to the sheriff before voting on it. “We do not want to exclude him as a higher authority,” he said.
“We should let the people responsible for security and safety make the decision,” said Commissioner Hakes. “We should let the sheriff make the decision.” She called Doo-Kirk a bookkeeper, Gamble an apartment manager, Martinson a property manager, Hall a hairdresser and herself an ex-realtor in reference to what they do or had done for work other than being on the county board and how it differed from being a safety professional.
“I’m not a hairdresser,” Hall said. “I’m a commissioner.”
Hakes and Hall said they did not want to vote on the motion without the sheriff there. “He shouldn’t have left,” Commissioner Martinson said.
The board voted on the motion, which passed 3-2, with Martinson, Doo-Kirk, and Gamble voting aye and Hakes and Hall voting nay.
The board unanimously passed a motion authorizing the sheriff to purchase a walk-through metal detector and to seek grant funding to pay for it.
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