Wireless Duress System Proposed For Desoto Courthouse
The Louisiana-based DeSoto Parish Courthouse and annex offices will receive a $8,367 wireless duress system that would provide courthouse staff access to panic buttons. When the buttons are deployed during an emergency, an immediate, prerecorded message alerts the DeSoto Parish sheriff’s office via radio.
The security measures was taken after District Judge Robert Burgess asked the panel to consider a security system for the courthouse following his return from a Homeland Security conference where discussions focused on recent courthouse shootings in Texas and Georgia.
DeSoto Sheriff Rodney Arbuckle suggests deploying either full-time or part-time officers at the courthouse at a cost of between $47,000 and $76,000 per year. Arbuckle also suggests closing all but one entrance to the courthouse and creating a monitored handicapped entrance.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Shreveport Times (LA) (06/07/05) P. 1B; Welborn, Vicki