PORT TOWNSEND – A representative of Port Townsend-based Mobilisa Inc. has approached Jefferson County officials with an alternative to an extensive metal detector and X-ray unit placed at a single doorway at the county courthouse.
Commissioners recently were given a petition signed by 28 Jefferson County Courthouse employees, requesting better courthouse security.
“We’re involved in the Jefferson County community and want to provide a safe courthouse,” said Terry Thiele, Mobilisa director of sales.
“We are working on a formal proposal.”
Thiele gave an informal presentation last week to Jefferson County Administrator John Fischbach and he expects to have a proposal for county officials sometime this week.
The proposal would be for the county to invest in one of the software development company’s products called the I.D. System.
It is a hand-held scanner by which a driver’s license is passed, alerting an officer using it as to the existence of a warrant against the person.
“It’s an opportunity to pursue if we need to pursue anything,” said Fischbach.
He pointed out that it would still require deputies to be posted at the three doorways to the courthouse.
Three armed deputies are assigned to the courthouse.
The deputies are posted in the Superior Court and District Court courtrooms when they are in session.
Fischbach said before he recommends anything to the commissioners, he will complete a survey of the 39 counties in the state to see how other courthouses handle security.
The survey, he said, will allow him to determine if security at the Jefferson County Courthouse is above or below the standard for the county’s size.
Thiele said the courthouse in Clermont County, Ohio, successfully uses the I.D. System.
He said in one day, law enforcement officers using the instant background checking device caught seven individuals with warrants out for their arrests who were trying to enter the courthouse.
