Court Security Called Pathetic Judges Say Shooting Tragedy Like That In Seattle Only Matter Of Time At Spokane Courthouse

Security at the Spokane County Courthouse is pathetic.

That’s the verdict from judges who say it’s only a matter of time before a tragedy like Thursday’s shooting in King County erupts in the halls of Spokane’s 100-year-old judicial building.

“It’s gotten everybody’s attention over here,” District Court Judge Sam Cozza said of the West Side shooting. “It’s an awful situation. Security is just woefully inadequate.”

And it has been for some time, agreed Superior Court Judge Robert Austin.

Despite repeated recommendations to county commissioners on security improvements at the courthouse, little has changed since 1986, when the Courthouse Security Committee formed. Austin is chairman of that committee.

“It’s frustrating,” he said Thursday. “These buildings weren’t designed with security in mind, and today’s society demands we have security.”

A metal detector is used at the courthouse only twice a week, Austin said, for domestic violence hearings and child custody disputes where emotions can become explosive. Otherwise, access to courtrooms, offices, even some judge’s chambers, is wide open.

The building’s security system basically consists of red signs on entrances declaring weapons in the courthouse illegal.

Sheriff John Goldman didn’t support spending a proposed $100,000 to upgrade security at the courthouse last fall. More attention should be paid to crime throughout the community, he said then.

“We’re talking about setting up a whole security infrastructure around one square mile of the courthouse when we have 1,700 miles out there and we’re not doing an adequate job,” Goldman said last November.

Goldman was out of town Thursday and couldn’t be reached for comment.

While there hasn’t been a shooting in the courthouse in 21 years, a 1992 U.S. Marshal’s Service report described the Spokane courthouse as “one of the least secure facilities … ever reviewed.”

The report recommended a complete overhaul, which Austin said probably would cost more than $1 million.

Instead, the Courthouse Security Committee scaled down the recommendations to a package that would cost $350,000 to $400,000, Austin said.

It includes a security center in the courthouse lobby where visitors would walk through a metal detector and put briefcases and handbags on an conveyor belt for a video search.

A similar set-up would be placed at the northeast entrance of the courthouse, and one metal detector would be installed inside the Public Safety Building. About nine additional security officers would be needed.

The county will accept bids on the security proposal beginning Monday. The system will be advertised nationally.

Commissioner Phil Harris said he hopes the county can come up with the most inexpensive way to improve security at the courthouse without sacrificing quality. That may mean implementing improvements in steps, beginning with a security staff that would add “a presence,” he said.

“Any reason for a delay (in security upgrades) is not acceptable to me,” Harris said. “I don’t know why people think we can’t have a tragedy here.”

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Bonnie Harris Staff writer Staff writer William Miller contributed to this report.