CLEARWATER — The rule is inflexible: No one other than sheriff's deputies and judges can carry a gun in the county's courthouses.
City cops, uniformed or not, may not. They check them when they come in.
Now the Pinellas Police Standards Council has asked Pinellas-Pasco Chief Judge Robert Morris to change the rule so uniformed police can hang onto their weapons when they go to court.
The council made its request long before bailiffs shot to death an armed man last month when he tried to get past them in the St. Petersburg courthouse. But that event "reinforced in our minds the need for this," said Largo police Chief Lester Aradi, the incoming chairman of the police council.
The Legislature created the council in 1972 to coordinate policy among the police agencies in Pinellas and to recommend ways the legislative delegation can improve law enforcement in the county. All the county's police chiefs, the sheriff, state attorney and director of the Police Academy serve on the council.
Morris has been receptive to the council's request, but is unlikely to change the rule anytime soon because there are so many stakeholders involved. And some of those are unsure it is wise to allow the officers to keep their weapons.
"It is a fairly involved process of trying to gauge" feelings and objections, Morris said. "There is a lot of dialogue to be had."
Historically, municipal officers were allowed to retain their weapons when in court, and in some parts of Pasco they are still allowed to do so. That changed sometime in the 1980s, said Tom Lange, executive director of the Police Applicant Screening Service. Some of the push, he said, came from attorneys who worried about the availability of weapons.
The change meant that law enforcement officers, whether they were deputies or municipal police, had to check their guns in lockers near the court house door. The only people who could carry guns were the bailiffs and some of the judges.
"I never agreed with the rule. I never liked the rule," Morris said.
So, early this year, Morris changed the rule in Pinellas. He's currently negotiating with Pasco judges and the sheriff to change the rule there.
"I initiated the change," he said. "It was something I felt strongly about."
The current rule allows uniformed deputies to hold onto their weapons. Deputies in plainclothes must check their guns in the lockers because, if something happened, they could be confused with a civilian with a gun. And all municipal police officers, even those in uniform, must check their guns.
Morris limited his order to deputies because the sheriff has the job of protecting the courthouses.
But municipal police officers want to keep their guns while in the courthouse. It's a matter of officer and civilian safety, Aradi said. When a bad guy sees an officer in uniform, the assumption is that he has a gun. If the officer does not have a gun, not only can he not defend civilians, he becomes an immediate target but cannot defend himself, Aradi said.
Pinellas County Sheriff Jim Coats, however, has reservations.
"One of the concerns I have is the level of training," Coats said. The deputies, he said, are all trained the same way and are accustomed to working together. They also have the same equipment and are on the same radio frequency, which makes for a more controlled, coordinated effort.
"I take strong opposition to that," Aradi said.
City officers are as well trained or better trained than some of the bailiffs, he said. And the county has a radio frequency that officers from any agency can access.
Aradi acknowledged that if officers do get permission to keep their guns while in court, it likely won't happen soon because Morris is taking an incremental approach.
"All we can do is express our deep concern," Aradi said.
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