Courthouse to be secured
By SHERRY LOSHNOWSKY
Peru Tribune Staff Writer – Peru, Indiana
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
It's been talked about for years, and now the Miami County Commissioners are actually going to address it.
At their regular meeting Monday, the board discussed purchasing an identification/security system for the Miami County Courthouse and annex buildings.
Mike Peconga, director of the Miami County Emergency Management Agency, told the commissioners he has been researching the systems for some time now. It would include a printer to make ID cards for all county employees - that they would wear while on the job so they could be easily identified by the public and others - and possibly card readers on doorways to limit access to the buildings after hours.
"This way you would know every person who went through what door, and what time they did," explained Dave Thompson of IdentiSys, an identification and security company based in Eden Prairie, Minn.
Peconga said that other nearby counties have ID cards made for all county and city employees, including police and fire personnel. A laptop computer and portable scanner would make it easy to track responders at the scene of an emergency - and ID cards could even be made on the spot for volunteers.
"It would be a tremendous asset to the county," Peconga said.
Allen, White, Wabash, Kosciusko, Whitley and Wells counties all have IdentiSys systems in place.
It could also be used as a time card system to track employee hours, Thompson said.
The commissioners plan to research the matter further to identify which doors would need card readers. They are considering implementing employee ID cards at the first of the year and purchasing equipment for the doors afterwards.