The Greene County Supervisors recently approved three security policies for the Greene County Courthouse.

The first policy was about accessibility. County Attorney Thomas Laehn outlined in the policy that certain courthouse employees would be issued key fobs to unlock the exterior doors outside of the normal business hours of 8am-4:30pm Monday through Friday. Next, only the sheriff, auditor, head custodian, informational technology director and county attorney would also be issued physical keys. Additionally, anyone from the public could request a key fob for events or other reasons to have the building open, which would be issued by the county auditor’s office. 

The next policy that the Supervisors approved was concerning security cameras. The cameras will continue to record video only and with no audio. Laehn said the security committee determined that there would be violations of attorney/client confidentiality if audio was recorded on the third floor of the courthouse. The other part of that policy is that if someone requests to view a recording, that can only be authorized by the sheriff or auditor, along with a subpoena from an attorney. 

The third policy was about heightened security at the courthouse for different situations. This was discussed in closed session by the Supervisors and no details were given because it would defeat the purpose of having the policy in place if the public knew what those plans were. Supervisor Chair John Muir talks about why they wanted to add this policy.

“I think the biggest thing with the heightened security is we were able to put a structure in place that we all understood these are protocols and if there was a situation and we went to a heightened alert, we all know what to expect.”

Muir explains why these security measures are necessary, while also keeping most of the privileges that residents have been accustomed to at the courthouse.

“You can’t bury our heads in the sand, we’ve seen examples of people’s reactions to different things, overreactions and violent reactions. I think for the safety of the people who work in here everyday and the general public who possibly could happen to be here, we have to recognize that it’s not the same as it used to be. The violence is maybe more violent. So we just need to be prepared to address it.”

The policies were approved unanimously this past Monday.