In only a week, the sheriff’s department and local emergency management applied for and received a $50,000 federal Homeland Security grant to put cameras and metal detectors in the courthouse.
Sheriff Jerry Harbstreit told council members at their meeting Wednesday morning that Judge Robert Arthur approached him about applying for the grant after learning that Martin County got one. But the deadline was in one week, so he worked quickly to write and submit the grant through Emergency Management.
The grant, which required no matching funds, was used to install more than 25 security cameras and two walk-through metal detectors at the courthouse.
Through a fiber optic cable connecting the courthouse to the jail, the operating equipment and monitor for the camera system have been located at the security center, where dispatchers can see the monitor as needed, explained Harbstreit.
Courthouse offices already have panic buttons which automatically page the sheriff’s department. But now when deputies are called, dispatchers can use the cameras to see what the problem is and notify deputies of the situation.
They can also describe to deputies suspects who might be fleeing as deputies arrive and can track suspects with the cameras.
The cameras are located in various offices where trouble might arise, in courtrooms, in hallways, in the lobby and outside.
They are focused on doors, counters and areas where the public might go, not on employees’ desks, and the monitors are not watched constantly, only when needed, said Harbstreit.
The cameras do not record sound and in courtrooms do not show the jury.
In other business
ADDITIONAL
APPROPRIATIONS
Community Corrections asked for an appropriation of $2,000 in grant money for data processing equipment. Money from county user’s fees was also appropriated to the pretrial diversion fund at $4,060.
TRANSFERS
A total of $13,000 was transferred from extra help and part-time help to overtime in the sheriff’s budget.
Also approved were $6,350.29 from community transition fund to community corrections project income in the community corrections budget; $400 from equipment repair to travel and mileage in the Washington Township assessor fund; $3,873.60 from extra clerical and furniture and fixtures to second deputy in the auditor’s office; $47,064.48 from bitumous to gas in the highway department’s fund; $1,000 from office machines to office supplies in the superior court budget; and $2,500 from witness fees to office supplies and $7,000 from computer supplies to the drug buy fund in the prosecutor’s budget.
Local News
Grant helps with courthouse security
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