Courthouse to add security

May 8, 2007
By Keri Brenner
The Olympian

More than a year after an inmate attacked a jail officer in a Superior Court elevator, the Thurston County Commission voted Monday for the courthouse campus to get its first secure entry gate.

“It will give us the ability to screen everyone who comes into the courthouse,” said Bill Phillips, the county’s central services director. “It will create a front door to the campus.”

The commission voted to advertise for bids for a 1,750-square-foot security building with two adjacent walls to enclose the front courtyard at the campus. The project is expected to take about eight months to build and cost between $525,000 and $575,00.

The building will contain two lanes of weapons- screening and metal detector equipment, similar to that used at airport security lines.

“Over the long run, it will be a lot more cost-effective way to handle the screening,” said Don Krupp, county chief administrative officer.

Under the current courthouse layout, visitors and staff members may enter the central courtyard freely but must pass through security screening once inside the lobbies of Buildings 2 and 3, which house District Court, Superior Court, the sheriff’s office and related public safety activities.

Under the new security plans, the two existing inside lobby-screenings will be removed and replaced with a single operation at the new front gate. The gate, flanked by two stone walls, will sit immediately off the driveway, at the current site of a small kiosk.

“There’s been a tremendous amount of debate about this,” Phillips said, and he noted that some county staff member think the “single-point screening” will be a burden on their daily access to their offices. “Not everybody is happy about it, but I think we now have a consensus that we need to provide security to the courts.”

The project, which includes a gating system and sally port around the jail entrance below Building 3, will not affect Building 1 — at least initially. That building houses administrative offices, such as planning, the auditor’s office and county commission.

A sally port is an enclosed entry area with a door at each side. After people enter, the door they’ve passed through is closed before the other door is opened.

Krupp said the design of the central gate is flexible enough that the county could add screening for Building 1 in the future.

Money for the new building will come from Thurston County’s share of a 0.25 percent real estate excise tax that is dedicated for use in capital construction projects, Krupp said.

The “single-point screening” gate is the latest in a series of security improvements at the more than 30-year-old courthouse campus since corrections officer Teresa Benefield was attacked by felon Carl Vance in an elevator March 31, 2006.

Benefield, who was presented with a meritorious service award for “conspicuous gallantry and heroism” during the ordeal, struggled with Vance for 20 minutes. During the struggle, Vance managed to take her firearm just before the doors were forced open, and detectives subdued him.

Benefield was hospitalized but returned to work later in the year. Vance was convicted of first-degree robbery and sentenced to 461/2 years in prison.

Since that time, the county has:

• Removed several controls in elevators and added cameras.

• Built a $130,000 video arraignment booth inside the jail so inmates can appear before a judge without having to travel to court.

• Added a second weapons screening system for $30,000 inside Building 3, which houses District Court. A screening system already was in place in Superior Court.

• Worked with a statewide public safety group to map out a Rapid Responder grid of the courthouse utilities, layout and infrastructure.

Still under discussion, Phillips said, are:

• A set of emergency alarm buttons that could be placed throughout the courthouse campus. The buttons already are installed inside elevators.

• A public address system that could be used to evacuate the building in an emergency. The current PA system is linked to the building’s fire alarm.