Just a bit more than a year ago, the Gallatin County Law and Justice Center installed a security checkpoint to keep the staff inside safe.
Since then, the numbers show it has done that.
According to the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office, the deputies at the checkpoint have collected more than 1,400 knives and razor blades, 18 magazines or other types of ammo, five tazers, three guns, more than 200 mini tools and more than 120 cans of pepper spray or mace.
The security checkpoint does this in order to be proactive, keeping court staff, defendants, visitors and others safe.
The sheriff says that word, “proactive,” is key.
“We didn’t want to do this after an incident occurred,” says Sheriff Brian Gootkin. “We had some very close calls, some bad situations that had happened and so we didn’t want to be reactive and somebody get hurt or killed and then say oh, we should do this, so thanks to the commissioners and our office, we were very proactive.”
As a fun note, the deputies say they also x-rayed many toys and animals from children coming through and let the kids watch the monitors to see what’s inside.
