Sherriffs’ union calls for gates to improve courtroom safety
Posted October 21, 2011 5:56 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The union representing BC’s sheriffs wants to make sure courtrooms are safe with all of the high-profile gang cases going on in Vancouver.
Four accused gangsters were in Vancouver Supreme Court Friday morning.
Temporary security gates are usually brought in for high-profile cases but Dean Purdy with the BCGEU says those gates should be permanent.
“The security inside our courthouses is really paramount and it’s something we’ve asked the minister to take a look at,” Purdy said. “There’s been an increase of gang activity in this province as we all know.”
Purdy uses the Robert Pickton trial as an example of why security gates are necessary.
“When a search gate was set up at the New Westminster courthouse for that trial we confiscated more than 2,000 pieces of contraband that otherwise would have entered the courthouse,” Purdy said.
He says Alberta courthouses have gates at the entrances and he asked the attorney general to do the same thing in BC at a meeting back in the spring.
