Additional security provides unnecessary inconvenience

The hearing over security concerns at the Tippecanoe County Courthouse continues today to determine whether security should be improved after a bombing attempt that occurred in August 1998.

Ronald Melichar, a Tippecanoe County Circuit judge, says that limiting access is the only way to prevent bombs, guns, and knives in the courthouse.

However, there are other options.

Melichar proposes limiting access to the building by reducing the number of doors from eight to one or two.

Not only would this be inconvenient to the public but it is also a waste of time.

Since the 1998 bombing attempt security precautions have been put in place including portable metal detectors, hand-held detectors, panic buttons, security cameras as well as eight armed bailiffs within the building.

Threats to security have been made, but no actual attacks have occurred on or around the courthouse since 1998, when $200,000 dollars in damage occurred but resulted in no injuries.

The fact that $225,800 dollars have been spent in improved security measures since the incident and that on September 18, an ordinance was passed that prohibits weapons in all county buildings should indicate that security concerns have been met and dealt with.

For them to add more equipment to ensure safety around the courthouse would only cost the tax payers more money. Money that does not need to be taken out of their pockets.

The question is not whether risk factors should be assessed; it is whether current security precautions are acceptable in preventing risk.

Limiting access to public buildings will not solve the issues at hand and will only cause congestion and other safety concerns when emergency situations arise.

The dead fountains around the Purdue campus should be a reminder of what overreacting risk assessors can do to a community that is not prepared. Safety is an issue that should not interfere with the convenience and aesthetics of current systems unless it is absolutely necessary.

If the court does rule in favor of less entryways, what is next? Will the courthouse become the model for a futuristic Orwellian society? Will everyone be strip searched to ensure they are not bringing in illegal weaponry?

There will always be risk involved in courthouse operations (in any operations, for that matter), but the objectives should be to minimize potential risk while not inconveniencing the public. The mandate accomplishes neither of these goals.

Editorial Board: Keith Thomas, Kurt Esposito, Jamie Teibel, Ian Clift, Anna Herkamp.

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