The Senate Judiciary Committee heard Sen. Grooms’ SB 422 on court security fees and funds. This bill requires the clerk of a circuit court and the clerk of a city or town court to collect a court security fee of $2 in each action in which a person is required to pay a criminal costs fee or a civil costs fee. The bill also requires the clerks to distribute the court security fees collected to the Auditor of State. The court security fees will be divided equally to each county and deposited in each county’s court security fund. The court security fund in each county may pay for the costs of installing, operating, maintaining, and upgrading security measures, plans, procedures, and systems in and around courtrooms and buildings that contain courtrooms located in the county. The author estimated that the worst-case scenario is that each county would receive $8,000. The bill was amended setting a 4-year sunset provision and to require the court security fee to go directly to a court security fund run by the Indiana Judicial Center to administer and distribute as grants.
Jane Seigel, Executive Director of the Indiana Judicial Center, testified that the Center would be happy to administer the fund, and that the Supreme Court has placed an emphasis on court security. Judge Mary Willis, Henry Circuit Court 1, testified on behalf of the Indiana Judges Association in favor of the bill. A representative for the Association of Indiana Counties and the Clerks’ Association also testified in support of the bill. The amended bill passed 7-2.
Read the bill at http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2015/bills/senate/422.