Penobscot County approves courtroom security contract

BANGOR – Penobscot County commissioners on Tuesday signed a contract with the state judiciary for the Sheriff’s Office to provide courtroom security in the county’s five courthouses through June 30, 2009.

The county will be paid $24,453 per month through June 30, 2008, and $25,285 per month the next fiscal year that runs July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009. That’s approximately $293,436 for this fiscal year and $303,420 for the next fiscal year.

Those figures represent a slight increase over last year, according to County Administrator Bill Collins.

The money will go to pay for routine court security in Penobscot County Superior Court in Bangor and the district courts in Bangor, Lincoln, Millinocket and Newport.

The contract does not include the cost of providing entry screening or the additional court security officers required for high profile trials or special events such as the annual visits of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, Michael A. Coty, director of judicial marshals and emergency services, said Tuesday.

The county bills the judiciary for those services and is reimbursed separately for the contracted services, he said.

During the last calendar year, the county billed the judiciary more than $9,000 for additional court security services and at least $6,300 for entry screening, Collins said.

Penobscot County is one of seven counties in the state with which the judiciary contracts to provide routine court security for judges and jurors, Coty said. Each county bills the judiciary and is reimbursed for those services.

The other counties with similar contracts are Piscataquis, Washington, Somerset, Lincoln, Oxford and Kennebec. The state Marshal Service provides courtroom security in superior and district courts in other counties.

In Lincoln County, the Marshal Service handles security in superior court and the Sheriff’s Office provides it in district court, Coty said.

Commissioner Peter Baldacci, who is an attorney in Bangor, said after Tuesday’s meeting that the current court security system “is working fine and should continue.”

“The sheriff is more attuned to the community’s needs,” Baldacci said, “and has a history of getting experienced law enforcement people to fill court security officer positions. If there’s a problem with court security, it’s easier to get the sheriff to deal with it. He is more responsive as a local elected official to local concerns.

“It may not work in every county,” he continued, “but in ours I think it’s important that the sheriff continue overseeing court security.”