New Electronic Security Starts at Courthouse

Lines remained short and moved smoothly Friday as court officials inaugurated new electronic security checks at Orange County’s Central Justice Center in Santa Ana, but some visitors quickly discovered they need to rethink what they bring into the building.

Dozens of people were turned back at the airport-style metal detectors because they were carrying such items as pocketknives, scissors, letter openers, nail files and corkscrews. All are legal but meet the county marshal’s criteria as potential weapons.

Most people simply took the contraband to their cars; the marshal’s office has no storage facility for the items. A few told the marshal’s personnel to just go ahead and throw the stuff away.

No guns were found Friday, though a couple of visitors had drug paraphernalia confiscated. Several people were carrying ammunition, which was also taken away.

“We can only speculate why they’d have ammunition,” said marshal’s Lt. Ann Ortiz. “It might have been that they left their firearms in their vehicles and just forgot that they were still carrying the bullets for them.”

Such confiscations, however, are common at courthouses with electronic metal detectors, Ortiz said.

Few jurors are summoned for court duty on Fridays. So the real test of the new system will come Monday, when hundreds of jurors will converge on the courthouse.

On Friday, the line from the checkpoint went out the front doors only a few times. Superior Court Judge Charles Margines, whose committee has been overseeing the new surveillance, said he timed the longest wait at two minutes, 45 seconds.

Some people grumbled; others seemed pleased.

Camela Maradi of Garden Grove had never been to the courthouse before Friday, so she assumed the metal detectors had always been in place.

“Times are getting worse,” she said. “If it makes things safer, who could mind waiting in line?”

Those mostly inconvenienced were courthouse workers who enter and exit more than once, for lunches or breaks.

“It’s a pain in the neck. A pain in the neck,” said Lorene Klein, a clerk. “But it’s worth it.”

Be forewarned: The sensitivity level of the new equipment has been set higher than at most airports. As a result, many visitors can expect to set the alarm off even if they remove their watches, rings and pocket change before walking through. Those who set off the alarm are checked by a marshal’s assistant using a hand-held detector.

Orange County is among the last of California’s urban counties to install electronic security at the main courthouse. The county marshal’s office has long advocated it, and judges and the grand jury have made a strong push for it, but the Board of Supervisors balked at paying for it. Last year, though, the Legislature authorized enough money for such security arrangements throughout the state.

Orange County will get just over $1 million, with most of that renewable annually for operating expenses.

You’ll be checked when you go into the county courthouse from the north or the south or into the east wing. You can’t get in on the west side anymore; that door has been converted to exit-only.