GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) - Roughly once a week someone is arrested while entering the Hall County Courthouse either because of an outstanding warrant or something in their pockets.
Sheriff Jerry Watson tells the Grand Island Independent (https://bit.ly/1Jti1z8 ) he tries to have a uniformed officer on hand at the security checkpoint in case an arrest needs to be made.
Between July 1, 2013, and June 30, 2014, 89 people were arrested on warrants at the courthouse. That’s up from 77 the previous year.
Many of the people who are arrested are recognized by the people working the checkpoint through experience and by reviewing that day’s schedule of hearings.
“I’ve been working law enforcement 26 years in this community,” Watson said. “You get to know who our regular customers are.”
Sometimes people forget what they have in their pockets and go through the security checkpoint with something illegal, such as drug paraphernalia or a weapon.
Watson remembers one instance where a man refused to give up his knife.
“He tried to go to the second floor because his spouse was up there,” Watson said. “And we ended up wrestling with him on the steps and taking the knife away from him. He went to jail.”
But that case had a sad ending because that man killed the woman a few weeks later.
In more typical cases of a pocket knife, the sheriff’s office treats it much like airport security does. The knife owner is given the chance to take it back to their car if they want to keep it or forfeit it to security.
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Information from: The Grand Island Independent, https://www.theindependent.com
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