A call reaches the clerk's counter at 9:42 a.m. Thirty seconds later someone is in the hallway asking whether to pull the fire alarm. That gap — between the threat arriving and the first coordinated action — is where courthouse security succeeds or fails. What follows is a workable sequence for court security staff, from the moment a threat is received to the moment the building reopens.

The First Sixty Seconds: Handling the Call

Keep the caller talking. Do not hang up first. If you're alone, signal a colleague without interrupting the call — a handwritten note, a raised hand to someone passing the doorway, a quick message to the control room. Two things need to run at once: your conversation with the caller and the notification chain forming behind you.

Every phone that accepts an outside line should have a threat checklist beside it. Not in a drawer, not in a binder at the supervisor's desk — on the desk, next to the handset, where a shaking hand can find it. Work through these prompts:

1. Exact wording. Write the caller's language down word for word, including slang and profanity.
2. Background noise. Traffic, machinery, a television, other voices, or the flat silence of a closed room.
3. Delivery. Is the caller reading from something? Calm, angry, rehearsed, intoxicated, young?
4. Specifics. Any location, time, device type, or reason given — even a vague one.
5. Recognition. Do you know the voice? Could you describe it well enough for someone else to recognize?

Write on paper during the call; a keyboard is loud and slows you down. Afterward, don't clean up or rewrite your notes — timestamp them and keep them as they are. If the threat came in writing, handle the page as little as possible and preserve the envelope. If it came by email or voicemail, save the file before someone deletes it out of habit. Avoid two-way radios and cell phones near anything that might be a device; radio-frequency energy is one reason device-handling protocols are strict. Follow your department's policy on this.

Notification: The Chain That Saves Minutes

One person runs notifications. That person calls the court security supervisor or chief, then local police and fire dispatch, then the court administrator or presiding judge, then facilities. Five people calling five numbers creates confusion at dispatch and a rumor problem inside the building.

Use a short script so nothing important is dropped: who you are, where you are, when the threat came in, what was said, and what you're doing right now. That last point matters. Responding units approach differently when they know the building is being evacuated rather than searched in place. Say which one it is.

Control the information too. Details passed down a hallway change shape in minutes, and a courthouse full of attorneys, jurors, and reporters will spread whatever they overhear. Give staff the minimum they need to act, and route questions to one point of contact.

Evacuate, Shelter, or Search First?

This decision belongs to the incident commander working with local law enforcement — not to whoever answered the phone. The tension is real and worth understanding before the call comes. Phone threats against courthouses are often designed to disrupt a proceeding or empty a building, and a fast, unmanaged evacuation can move people past a device or hand the caller exactly the disruption they wanted. In other cases, evacuation is plainly the right answer.

What tips the scale:

• Specificity. A described device, a named location, a stated time or motive.
• Building size and layout. How long a credible search of your facility actually takes.
• People who cannot simply leave. Detainees in holding, defendants mid-trial, a jury in deliberation, anyone with mobility needs.
• Conditions outside. Weather, holding capacity, and whether the assembly point is usable.

A courthouse evacuation is not a fire drill. Some of the people inside are not free to walk out, and the plan has to say so.

Running a Controlled Search

Who searches

Two-person teams, using people who know their own areas — clerk's staff for the clerk's office, the bailiff for the courtroom, facilities for mechanical spaces. Keep whoever took the threat off the search roster if you can; they'll be needed for a written statement and possibly an interview.

What to look for

Anything that wasn't there before, and anything out of place:

• Unattended bags, backpacks, boxes, or containers.
• Fresh tape, string, wire, or plastic where you don't expect it.
• Disturbed ceiling tiles, unlocked utility closets, open access panels.
• Odors that don't belong — chemical, fuel, or something like burnt almonds.
• Restrooms, stairwells, trash rooms, vending areas, loading docks.

How to search

Work a fixed pattern — room by room, bottom to top, left to right — so teams don't re-cover the same ground and gaps become obvious. Do not touch, open, or move anything suspicious. If a device is found: stop, back out the way you came, clear the immediate area, mark the location from a distance, and report it. Keep radios and phones away from it.