Take another look at security tactics
How could anyone be that stupid? You might have scratched your head and asked that question after reading the news account in Tuesday’s edition about the Uniontown man who, as he termed it, “freaked out” in the hallway of the Fayette County Courthouse during criminal court week. Police knew the man would be in court to answer a charge of resisting arrest, so they decided to serve him with another arrest warrant concerning an alleged drug transaction. The man flipped and attempted to fight off a growing stream of police, court constables, sheriff’s deputies and courthouse tipstaff. He lost of course. If there is one thing more plentiful on the opening day of criminal court week than defendants and attorneys, it’s law enforcement officers waiting around as the cattle call commences.
Anyone with a partially thinking brain can see this and calculate that the odds are decidedly stacked against a successful escape. But this man had something to protect. He didn’t want another arrest to go down while he was allegedly carrying marijuana and cocaine.
Anyone possessing a few brain cells would have known to leave that stash behind rather than risk taking it into a courthouse crawling with police, district attorneys and judges whose job it is to enforce laws and mete out justice.
But then again, had another warrant not been served, this man might have made it through his day of court without raising any suspicion. Which should make anyone with half a brain wonder what else is slipping into the courthouse.
To not ask this would be stupid.
The county in recent years finally took some safety measures at the courthouse. Most entrances are locked so that the public is forced to enter through the one point where a metal detector and security are stationed.
But people do slip by, especially if their faces are familiar and the system will only detect, as it name implies, metal instruments. While someone’s house keys might set it off, a baggie of marijuana or even plastic explosives won’t.
And the system certainly won’t prevent threatening messages from seeping through as District Attorney Nancy Vernon and Commissioner Sean Cavanagh found out this week. Both received copies of a newspaper article about the mid-West mailbox pipe bombs along with a hand-written threat.
The contraband carried in by a criminal court defendant and the threats carried in the mail renew the debate as to how far can or should the county go in securing the courthouse.
When does the duty to protect the public interfere with the public’s right not to undergo strip searches for their own good? Somewhere there is a balance and this is as good a time as any for Fayette County to question if it is acting safely or stupidly.
When the county first ordered the metal detectors and locked the entranceways those suggestions came from a safety committee and reports as to how to improve security. Many suggestions were offered and made public. Security shouldn’t be a stagnant operation where it’s addressed once and then forgotten. An ongoing review by a security and safety committee along with a public report as to the findings would be the smart choice.