Some Texas judges banning off duty officersÂ’ guns in courthouse
At least five Travis County criminal judges plan to prohibit law enforcement officers who are not in uniform from bringing guns into their courtrooms in the downtown Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center.
Their decisions come seven months after an Austin police officer in street clothes left his gun in a public bathroom on the buildingÂ’s seventh floor while waiting to testify in a felony trial. The gun was safely recovered, but the incident rattled some judges, who began discussing courthouse security with Travis County sheriffÂ’s department officials.
Although members of the public are prohibited from bringing any weapons into the justice center, sheriff’s deputies who secure the building carry guns. Law enforcement officers from other agencies — who come to the building to testify, to have warrants signed by judges and for other reasons — have long been allowed to carry their weapons into Travis County courthouses, as they are in many other Texas courthouses, including those in Hays, Williamson, Dallas and Harris counties.