Commissioners’ vote to improve courthouse security in 5-2 vote

WADESBORO — Back in January, the Anson County Board of Commissioners received a visit from David Baker, the Director of Tax and Revenue Outreach for the Association of County Commissioners, who briefly shared security concerns he noted while conducting a peer review.

Among the concerns he shared were the amount of cameras mounted within the courthouse and the angles of their scope of view.

In response to Baker’s report, some commissioners, county officials, and Superior Court Resident Judge Stephan Futrell, met to weigh cost versus need in courtroom security for Anson County.

Wading into the discussion, Sheriff Scott Howell addressed commissioners at Tuesday’s April 16 board meeting.

“Before I get started on the topic I came to address tonight, I would like to introduce to you some of the staff that we have recently hired in the last few months, to share with you some of their accomplishments, to show you the caliber of people we are now hiring in Anson County.”

First called up to the podium for recognition by the Sheriff, was Steven Marsh, who went to SPCC and completed BLET.

“There are about sixty-five to sixty-eight blocks of instruction and then you take the state exam,” explained Howell. “For his [Marsh] class, he had the highest average or highest score on the state exam in his BLET class,” the Sheriff proclaimed with pride.

Cory Howard followed, with Sheriff Howell sharing that, “Of those sixty-five tests, Howard had the highest average of testing in all those blocks in his class.”

Remarking on the speed in which Howard will be conducting foot chases, Howell jokingly commented that Howard is so fast he even missed how quickly he completed the state physical fitness test.

Saying that he had beaten the test by two seconds, Howard was forced to politely whisper a correction to the Sheriff, “It was twelve seconds, Sir.”

Whipping around to face Howard, Howell pretended to sternly thunder, “Don’t ever correct me,” while maintaining a straight face as the room erupted with laughter.

Conceding it to be an even better accomplishment, Howell added, “He was also valedictorian of his class.”

Next the sheriff recognized Jacky King, Wylder Kuhn, Jasmine Ratliff, and Taylor White.

“Taylor was in a different class from some of these guys, she went through the Richmond County program and she had the highest average of those sixty-five tests at the end of the block of instruction. She also was chosen as the most outstanding cadet by the director of BLET in her class.”

Following Taylor, Howell celebrated Nichola Leviner, praising, “Ms. Leviner comes to us with seven years experience and six years in investigation. She is doing a great job in the detective division for us.”

Wayne Jordan comes to Anson County equipped with an impressive thirty-two year history in law enforcement. Howell enthuses that, “Twenty-three of those years were in investigations.”

Acknowledging recent meetings taking place to discuss improving courthouse security measures, attended by County Manager Leonard Sossaman and Commissioners’ Jamie Caudle and JD Bricken, Sheriff Howell stated, “I saw an estimate for the installation and wiring of a camera system for the courthouse was available and I think that it is probably not the only one by our county’s rules, there might be others before this one would get submitted, but that bid was $238,726.07.”

Howell went on to share that many concerns were mentioned during the meeting, including needing to hire a deputy to watch the camera monitors.

“The only thing is,” cautioned Sheriff Howell, “is that if an assault begins to happen, that is just what you are going to see, you are going to watch it happen on the monitor.”

Howell surmises that the camera will not prevent anyone from getting assaulted.

Drawing from his wealth of knowledge, Sheriff Howell predicted, “By the time a deputy, or someone else gets there, the assault is going to be over with.”

Howell went on to share that a commissioner offered the cost effective solution of hiring additional deputies to prevent or stop an incident, rather than putting in an expensive security system that merely records incidents as they occur.

“Judge Futrell agreed that it would be a lot better to have boots on the ground than it would be to have cameras on the wall. “

Bolstered by the judge’s backing, Howell suggested, “My proposal to you is to hire three deputies to work in the courthouse. They would work security at the courthouse, the metal detector, and in the courtroom.”

Reasoning that court is not always in session, Howell is confident none of the Anson County Sheriff’s Office duties would be affected by additional security duties at the courthouse.

Howell detailed that one deputy will always be stationed by the metal detector, with two deputies guarding the basic area of the courthouse.

Recounting a 2016 disturbance at the courthouse as evidence for his claims, Howell shared,”We had a guy come to the front door of the courthouse with an AR-15, saw a deputy there, and it scared him off. The deputy had only been at that post for almost thirty days. Prior to that, we did not have a metal detector deputy, and there would have been no one there to stop him from entering the building.”

The Sheriff soberly pointed out that the deputy who saved the day back in 2016 had been transferred to that post. He had been removed from his previous position to serve at the courthouse, causing the Sheriff’s Office to be down a person on the force.

Howell further proposed that when the deputies were not needed in court, he would like to see them having a physical presence at the Department of Social Services, the Administration Building, and any other buildings that have a high volume of visitors.”

Another suggestion advanced by the Sheriff would be to have a sex offender register deputy, whose duties would be to, “Assist the administrative staff that registers sex offenders and to help ensure those sex offenders across the county are held in compliance and that they are doing what they are supposed to do, and living where they are supposed to be living at.”

Reinforcing his argument, Howell advised, “These deputies would also provide security in any kind of government building on the various occasions where law enforcement presence is needed.”

Salary discussed for the deputies ranges to $195,000.00 with benefits, and an additional $132,00.00 for patrol vehicles.

“Like last year, there is money available in our budget that would pay for this, in addition to saving the $238,000.00,” persuaded Howell.

Following the Sheriff’s address, Commissioner JD Bricken made a motion to proceed with the Sheriff’s proposal, confiding, “I was at the meetings and I think it is really great that the judge listened to the idea of having them in.”

Concerned with cost, Commissioner Harold Smith asked, “Did you say you already have the money?”

“The money would come from saving, by not having to put cameras in.”

Adding insight, Bricken stated, “The judge mandated that proposal for the cameras. He wasn’t asking us to come up with a quarter-million dollars, he was telling us to. It is nice that he has given us some flexibility when deciding what to do with it.”

“I second the motion,” spoke up Commissioner Jarvis Woodburn.

Commissioners voted five to two to proceed with Sheriff Howell’s recommendations, with Commissioners’ Little-Reed and Smith the lone objectors.