City Council Looking Into Possibly Setting Up Metal Detectors Prior To Council Meetings

  • Tuesday, November 19, 2019

The City Council, citing safety concerns, is looking into setting up metal detectors prior to council meetings.

Councilman Russell Gilbert said, "Right now there is nothing we can do (to deter a shooter). We have two cops, but they could take them out first."

He added, "Every time you turn on the TV, five or six people have been taken out."

Chairman Erskine Oglesby favors looking into the extra security as well. He said, "At a meeting in January, we had people yelling and screaming and running around. Some of them actually came up on the dais."

He said, "We want to make sure our clerk is safe and we are safe. And the people who come to the meetings need to be safe. I would be cautious and very unnerved being at one of our meetings."

The conversation began with a discussion of making a safer situation for the clerk who sits at a desk up front just below the dais. The clerk, who has her back to the audience, said she had sometimes been jostled by members of the crowd.

City Public Works came up with a plan that would have a small wall separating the clerk from the audience. A row of seats at the back would be taken out so that could be a way for members of the audience to get in and out instead of always going by the clerk.

Councilman Darrin Ledford said an alternative plan would be to put the clerk up on the dais with the council members.

The County Commission, during the administration of County Mayor Claude Ramsey, set up metal detectors at the old County Courthouse where the Commission meets as well as at the Courts Building. 

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