Andrews County Courthouse now has upgraded security measures

ANDREWS, Texas (KOSA) -The Andrews County Courthouse now has upgraded security measures.

It went into effect earlier this month after a series of events made some workers feel unsafe.

There have been a few incidents at the Andrews County Courthouse.

The Andrews Sheriff’s Department decided to add new security measures to keep the employees and the community safe.

According to the Andrews County sheriff, three incidents occurred at the courthouse over the last two years.

Andrews County sheriff saw that it was time to add new security measures.

“With the last incident we had we arrested the subject for public intoxication inside the courthouse and he did cause a wreck. I mean he fought us and after that, we knew we needed to do something to get a handle on this,” said Andrews County Sheriff Rusty Stewart.

The sheriff’s department was located within the courthouse but after the department moved out more situations with disorderly conduct started happening.

“When we moved out of the courthouse and the deputies moved to the new building that left just the constables in the building itself and with that, they weren’t going to be there all the time so what we needed to do is be there all the time,” said Rusty Stewart

The sheriff’s department added new security cameras, metal detecting, and screening measures, and assigned two deputies to secure the building.

People are only allowed to enter the courthouse through the east side of the building.

It took about a year to add the new security measures because of the transfer of the security and the electronics.

“The newer ones that we needed to do ended up going a different route and anytime you try to tie two different systems together, it usually gets complicated and it did but we worked through all those issues and finally got all those worked out,” said Rusty Stewart

Sheriff Stewart says larger cities have always had security measures but he thinks now rural areas have to beef up their security efforts to protect their employees.

“In the more rural areas, you don’t quite see as much of the security, but you are starting to know, and it is just the time we live in and the climate we live in and everything that’s been happening. we have to start protecting ourselves against threats,” said Rusty Stewart.

Andrews County sheriff says this is going to be a learning process for the employees and the community to get used to the new security measures.

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