The Grantville municipal court should be a bit safer now that the Grantville City Council has approved the purchase of a metal detector to deter anyone from bringing weapons into the courtroom.

Interim Police Chief Robert Thomas presented three quotes to the council following a request from the municipal court judge to increase safety measures in the courtroom.

"What precipitated this?" asked Councilwoman Rochelle Jabaley. "Was there a threat or something? Why is this necessary, all of a sudden?"

Thomas said that it's something that "should have been done a long time ago," because there's always the potential for violence to erupt in a courtroom.

"You don't want them coming into court with a small pocket pistol or a knife," he said.

The police department looked at possibly going a cheaper route -- like maybe purchasing a $160 hand wand vs. the full $3,900 metal detecting system -- but it didn't seem like a practical solution, Thomas said.

"You don't want accusations that an officer touched someone with the wand in an inappropriate place," which is always a danger, he said. That can lead to internal investigations that the police department would rather avoid.

"On these, you walk through with no touching," he said.

Defendants will be instructed to leave their large pocketbooks in their vehicles, he said.

"They would go off because of keys and things, and we want to save time," he said.

"We want to eliminate a lot of possible things that could happen," he said.

Councilwoman Selma Coty asked whether or not defendants in the court might "set it off with a prosthesis of some kind." Such incidents are routine, Thomas indicated.

Police officials indicated that there were already funds in place to make the purchase without having to dip into city coffers, thanks to funds set aside from previous fines and placed in a special account.

City council members asked if the new metal detector will decrease the amount of police manpower needed to conduct court safely. Three officers will still be needed, Thomas said.

"You need a bailiff standing between the podium and the judge," he said. "And you need someone to escort defendants to the clerk's office and to the probation office."

Due to limited space, no one is allowed to enter the courtroom except for the defendants, he said.

"All spectators have to remain outside because there isn't enough seating," he said. "Only those with cases on the docket will be allowed to go in through the metal detector. All the others will have to go back outside."