"The
general goal of a comprehensive court security policy should be to establish
appropriate protection for court staff and facilities, the general public,
and the judicial process as a whole."8
Measure 1.2.1 considers the court’s performance in taking precautions to
reduce or eliminate threats to the public’s safety in the courthouse. This
measure addresses "the degree to which design features of the court
provide a secure setting," mentioned in the commentary for Standard
1.2.
Planning/Preparation.
An expert in court security features should be retained
to help conduct the security audit. The National Sheriffs’ Association can
help identify available consultants. In some jurisdictions, appropriate
expertise may be available from the local sheriff’s department or the U.S.
Marshals Service.
The security
consultant and security officers from the court should be provided Form
1.2.1, National Sheriffs’ Association Physical Security Checklist, as
a resource for drafting an audit to fit the court’s building(s) and
grounds. For example, some audit items will vary depending on whether the
court is located within a multipurpose government building or has its own
facility. While developing the checklist, the consultant and officers also
should consider what would constitute a positive response for each question.
That is, in some cases, a "no" response on the National
Sheriffs’ Association Checklist may be positive (see, for example,
question 10 under "Parking Areas.") Data analysis will be simpler
if responses are consistent across items, i.e., all "yes"
responses are positive. (See the section below on data analysis and report
preparation.)
Data
Collection. The
security consultant conducts an in-person security audit, using the modified
security checklist described earlier. The court’s security officers should
assist the consultant in obtaining any information he or she needs in order
to conduct the audit.
Data Analysis
and Report Preparation. Simple
descriptive statistics are used to analyze the results of the security
audit. The number of positive responses are summed and divided by the number
of total responses possible on the court’s version of the security
checklist. (It is important to note that if some "no" responses
are positive, the total number of positive responses cannot be obtained by
adding only the responses in the "yes" column.) The court’s
performance on this measure increases as the percentage of positive
responses on the checklist increases. If the security audit indicates
problems, court security officials can examine the percentage of positive
responses in each of the major areas of security (e.g., parking areas,
courtrooms, elevators) to determine where added precautions may be
necessary.
