Johnson County attorney: Money needed to improve safety at courthouses

IOWA CITY - If Iowa wants to improve courthouse safety, lawmakers need to give counties money for metal detectors or extra law enforcement officers, Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness said.

Iowa Chief Justice Mark Cady's Condition of the Judiciary speech Wednesday called on Iowa lawmakers to make courthouse security a priority in 2015. Cady said the Iowa Association of Counties has surveyed counties about courthouse security and started providing training for courthouse employees.

Lyness is glad to see security get some attention but said these measures don't go far enough.

'No matter what kind of training we do, we can't prevent weapons from coming into the building,” Lyness said. 'We need metal detectors.”

Johnson County voters in November voted down a courthouse annex that would have consolidated entrances to one that would have included a metal detector. The $33.4 million courthouse expansion got 56.9 percent of the vote, falling short of the 60 percent needed for passage.

The defeat came after two other failed bond issues, in 2012 and 2013, for a Justice Center that would have included more jail space.

The county is mulling a smaller addition on the back of the building that would include a single entrance with metal detectors, Lyness said.

While Johnson County's population of 140,000 calls for more space and safety precautions, Lyness said, even relatively small counties have faced courthouse violence.

During a county supervisors meeting Sept. 8 at the Jackson County Courthouse in Maquoketa, a man angry about his property taxes fired a small gun at the county assessor. One of the supervisors intervened, and during a struggle, the man with the gun was shot and killed, the gun still in his hand and his finger on the trigger.

The Jackson County Courthouse has taken steps to improve security, including closing access points, having a sheriff's deputy at meetings and applying for a grant to purchase screening equipment.

Two of Tod Bowman's students had just left the Jackson County Courthouse moments before the shooting. Bowman, a state senator and teacher at Maquoketa High School, was pleased when Cady on Wednesday called on lawmakers to help improve safety.

'Obviously, we need to do something at our smaller courthouses to make sure they're safe and secure,” Bowman said.

Bowman said he thinks the state and counties can provide funding to boost courthouse security.

'I think we should share that responsibility,” Bowman said. 'I think we can work together. There's probably some opportunities for them to help (counties) help themselves.”

Gazette reporter James Q. Lynch contributed to this report.