One of the most important duties as a Law Enforcement Officer is to protect. It is different for each Officer, depending on their assignment. Many times, we don’t have the luxury of choosing who we protect, not that it matters because we have a job to do.
Yes, we protect the innocent from the criminals and we also protect the criminals when they are in our custody.
Many of you think that Bailiffs only stay inside the courtroom and never leave their post for any reason. That may be true for some, but not all, especially me. Protection is my number one priority on a daily basis. My judge jokes about me being more reliable and effective than the Secret Service to jurors. I am in charge and in control of my courtroom. I must protect my own life so that I can effectively protect my judge, court staff and everybody in the courtroom.
Security in a courtroom can get a little tricky with different cases coming through. My job doesn’t confine me to just my courtroom, another form of protection and service that we provide are escorts. If anyone requests to be escorted to their vehicles, we make sure they leave the courthouse safely. I’ve escorted many people, from victims of a crime, attorneys, jurors, witnesses and even defendants. Escorts are one of the most dangerous tasks because a lot of the time you are out in the open and sometimes you run into the person or persons that are the threat to the people you are escorting.
Anything can happen during an escort therefore I make sure that I am capable of handling whatever threat I may be facing to the best of my ability with the equipment that I have on me. I’ll admit that I’ve had the hairs on the back of my neck raise on many of the escorts that I’ve done. Some of the most dangerous that I’ve been involved with involved gang trials where the threat is very real to those who testify. With cases involving gangs, you have gang members that are in and around the courthouse there to intimidate or eliminate witnesses to keep them from testifying against their fellow gang member facing prison time. When a case involving gangs is over and there is a conviction, the jurors may face intimidation and retaliation by the defendant’s family and other gang members.
The environment and atmosphere in and around the courthouse can be volatile at times. It is our job to keep everyone safe. The threat and dangers are always present, the best we can do is to prepare and minimize it with training and experience, utilizing the best possible tactics available.
You can see why I take my job so seriously. It’s because others depend on me to make sure that they get to go home safe. I owe it to myself, my family, to everyone that I protect everyday to be the best at what I do.