Sheriff Huey Hoss Mack appeared before the Commission and said in 2000 the Alabama Supreme Court designated, by Rule 37 of the Alabama Rules of Judicial Administration, the establishment of a court security committee for each county in Alabama for the purpose of a joint effort of law enforcement, the County Commissions and the judiciary to provide for the security of all the courthouses in the State of Alabama. Sheriff Mack said Baldwin County is unique in that it has three designated courthouse locations in the County: Bay Minette, Foley and Fairhope. The Honorable Scott Taylor is the current Presiding Circuit Court Judge and they met in August to amend the existing order of court security and the Court Security Plan for Baldwin County. Sheriff Mack said the Court Security Committee met. This Committee is composed of the Presiding Circuit Court Judge; the Presiding District Court Judge; the Judge of Probate; the District Attorney; the Circuit Clerk; the Sheriff and the Chairman of the County Commission or his designee. The Committee adopted the following amendment: "Any person possessing a cell phone or video recording device, hat or food, shall be denied entry to a secure facility, however, the exclusions listed in this paragraph shall not apply to Court or County Personnel with proper identification, Attorneys with court identification issued by the Sheriff of Baldwin County, on duty Law Enforcement with property agency identification, Jurors with proper documentation, or as authorized from time to time by the Presiding Circuit Judge." Sheriff Mack said the media is included in this exemption and are allowed into certain areas of the courthouse as they have a responsibility to report on the functions of the court system. In today's world of technology, there have been instances where people have brought their cell phone devices into court to record testimonies and take videos of jurors. This was deemed as not only a security risk, but it detours people from their civic duty of serving on a jury or grand jury. Sheriff Mack said a new signage project has been implemented and will be posted at each entrance to the courthouses in Bay Minette, Foley and Fairhope. At the Foley and Fairhope Courthouses this is just for the judicial areas and not the administrative areas. The Bay Minette Courthouse is all judicial, so this applies to the entire facility. The signage will be posted, and this will take effect on Monday, November 12, 2018. There is an upcoming meeting with the Baldwin County Defense Bar where the Committee will explain the amendment because the Defense Bar is an intricate part of the judicial system and the Committee wants to make sure the order is clear. Sheriff Mack said he is presenting the Amendment to the Court Security Plan to the Commission today.
Chairman Burt said this does not require any action on the Commission’s part, the Committee has the ability and the authority to do this, by statute.
Ron Cink, County Administrator/Budget Director, said the Commission will need to ratify and confirm and make this a part of the record.