Should Justice Court have a metal detector?

Southold’s justice court, which conducts proceedings in the regular Town Hall meeting room, is one of the few East End justice courts that does not have a metal detector.

Town Justice Rudy Bruer asked the Town Board to reconsider a long-languishing proposal to install a metal detector for use while court is in session.

The town has been reluctant to do so in the past because two court officers are needed to operate it and because the entrance to the meeting room is not ideally configured for a metal detector.

Town board members said it can cost as much as $57 per hour to have a police officer on overtime act as a second courtroom officer.

Board members agreed to hold another meeting to discuss the metal detector, though they said they believed any changes would not be made in time to be included in the 2013 budget.