Bourbon County improves courthouse security system

The Bourbon County Courthouse is undergoing a security makeover.

The courthouse, 210 S. National Ave., has recently added security cameras and soon will be adding a bailiff and reducing access to the building to one entrance-exit point.

Last week, workers finished installing 30 cameras at various locations inside the facility. Cameras were added in the main lobby areas on the first, second and third floors as well as the stairwells, hallways, the two courtrooms on the third floor, the district court office, the front and back entrances, and areas in the basement.

The cameras are monitored by personnel in the control room, which is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at the Southeast Kansas Regional Correctional Center.

The cameras are recorded by the computer's digital video recorder hard drive system. The cameras can't pan or rotate, county employee Shane Walker said.

The cameras are enclosed in a tinted half-circle shaped protective cover. There are no hidden cameras inside the courthouse, Walker said.

Since the installation, the cameras haven't detected any suspicious activity, Bourbon County Sheriff Harold Coleman said.

The county Friday started taking applications for a bailiff for the district court. The bailiff will have a desk with a computer at the entrance to the district court office. The computer will allow the bailiff to monitor the cameras inside the facility.

Installation and equipment costs for the cameras are $28,000 and came out of the county's general budget, said custodial supervisor David Neville, who oversaw the installation process.

Sixth Judicial District Chief Judge Richard Smith also personally requested the cameras be installed, Neville said.

Other security upgrades will be to reduce the entrances and exits to one. The only entrance will be at the east side of the courthouse and there will be one door for entrance and one for exit, Neville said.

The entrance to the SEKRCC will be locked and only available to visitors and delivery workers, Neville said.

The county hopes to have the change in place by March 1.

Currently, the courthouse has entrances at the east, west, south and north sides.

The Kansas Department of Homeland Security recommended numerous security upgrades to the courthouse after state officials did a "vulnerability assessment" on the building in March.

The state wouldn't say what they found in the assessment because they said it contained sensitive security information.

But one of the common findings among checks on other courthouses were the excess of entrance points to the building.