| Our costly courthouse security procedures are not warranted. There is no credible evidence that identifies any more risk to the occupants in the courthouse than with any other public or private facilities in the county. If a comprehensive professional threat analysis had been conducted, it would have illustrated this fact.
The county commissioners instituted this program because of a single shooting incident in Seattle a few years ago. This type of reasoning lacks merit. Otherwise, you can justify having armed guards and searches everywhere. For example: schools, fast food restaurants, post offices, hospitals, parks, mental health centers and on and on. Everyday, everyone is subjected to societal risks. The rest of us, our children and grandchildren all live with them without the luxury of armed guards and searches.
Most of our commissioners and the other elected officials are saying by their actions that they are more important than their remaining 230,000 constituents. Commissioner Botkin in all fairness did state “There really is not strong rationale to support this expense”. Why the other two commissioners and some of their colleagues feel so insecure is beyond me. Before these searches were instituted, they had armed court bailiffs and the Sheriff’s office next door. This seemed to suffice for more than a hundred years.
It costs over $300,000 per year and rising to provide the security for this one building. With so many other unfunded demands facing our county such as the need for additional sheriff deputies, park supervisors, lifeguards, youth programs coordinators, etc., how can they justify continuing to spend this amount of money? Our local cities and most of the other counties in the state have not deemed it necessary. Let the court bailiffs take care of the court security upstairs, as they have been doing since the courts were established. Our elected politicians, including the judges, should not be allowed to designate themselves as an elite privileged group. It would be a breath of fresh air to see our County Commissioners take bold steps and eliminate this program.
Stanley and Mary Jones
Port Orchard. |
