‘Right up there’
Fremont County court security system ‘kind of leading the way,’ sheriff says
By Martin Reed
Staff Writer

Sheriff Skip Hornecker said he hopes to use Fremont County’s court security organization to help others around the state improve their safety.
“In some respects we’ll use court security units such as ours as models to take a look at what should be done on a minimal basis in most courtrooms,” said Hornecker, who is a member of a state commission studying the issue.
The 12-member Wyoming Court Security Commission met for the first time last month since the Legislature created the group under the supervision of the Wyoming Supreme Court.
“One of the things we have done ... at the statewide level with the commission is see if we can get an overview” on courtroom security, Hornecker said during a recent interview.
“Fremont County is right up there. We’re in very good shape,” he said. “We’re kind of leading the way, I think, (with) Teton County, Laramie County.”
During last month’s debut meeting, a U.S. marshal provided the group with a bleak view of court security in Wyoming.
“The security is lacking,” James “Tony” Rose, marshal for the district of Wyoming, said with a tone of understatement.
Rose told the commission that marshals have done an assessment on courts around the state and presented them to sheriff’s departments. He would only present the results in a secret session.
“I feel real uncomfortable in an open session” discussing the vulnerabilities, he said.
Wyoming Chief Justice Barton Voigt said he is sure the initial studies on courthouse security are “frightening.”
“We recognize that there are a lot of problems facing this group,” Voigt said. “It’s not just the guy with the gun.”
In Fremont County, security concerns are more associated with the actual buildings rather than staff-related issues.
“Our protocol is pretty strong. What we’re dealing with now are actual architectural issues,” which are “more expensive,” Hornecker said.
“Buildings, for instance the courthouse in Lander, it’s got enough age on it, the era it was built court security was something that was not considered,” he said.
Improving security in the court facilities in Riverton and Lander would require “major renovation, major remodeling” that would be expensive, the sheriff said.
Fremont County has benefited from two audits focused on court security done in 2000 and 2007.
“The purpose of the second audit was to kind of see how we’re doing from the first audit. Certainly when there is an audit ... one of the things you want to do is see if you can grow from it,” Hornecker said.
“First was more or less a baseline: Here’s what we have, here’s what we’re doing,” he said. “Then what we did is we kind of restructured mainly protocol” and “to a minimal extent restructure some facilities without spending a lot of the taxpayers’ money.”
The sheriff’s office in past months conducted a survey of elected officials in the Fremont County Courthouse in Lander about their security concerns.
“We got a pretty fair response from elected officials and department heads, and most of the current concerns that they had were directed at protocol versus structural design. So we were able to give them some insight on things they could do,” Hornecker said.
“For instance, I know that some of the elected officials have taken it upon themselves to update their security to a certain extent electronically,” he said.
Fremont County authorities are continuing to work on improving local courtroom security.
“One of the things we have done most recently is structure a court security committee in the Riverton facility,” the sheriff said. “We’re just in the beginning stages to coordinate another committee over here” in Lander.
The Legislature ordered the state commission working on the issue to draft a report on the state’s court security by September 2009. The report may lead to funding priorities for courts around the state.
“One of the issues surrounding court security I think is funding structures. Where should it come from and how much is it?” Hornecker said.
“In this day and age court security is a priority. There are things happening in courtrooms throughout the nation that are pretty disturbing,” he said.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.