[JonInMiddleGA]

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/12603776.htm

ATLANTA - Months after a shooting rampage left three dead at the Fulton County Courthouse, exasperated judges said that security cameras still haven't been plugged in and faulty doors have yet to be replaced.

A task force charged with making security recommendations after the shooting also said Friday that the number of sworn officers assigned to the courthouse must be increased by roughly a third to secure the downtown Atlanta building.

The findings prompted outcry from members of the panel angry at the county's cumbersome bureaucracy, which has been slow to react to the March 11 shootings despite repeated urgings from the task force.

"A shooting of a judge - how more squeaky of a wheel can there be?" said Fulton County State Court Judge Penny Brown Reynolds, a member of the panel.

"Here we are months later and we're talking about the same things," she said. "We can't get a definite answer as to whether cameras are working or whether they received our request. There's a breakdown somewhere."

At a July meeting, panel member Richard Pennington, the Atlanta Police Chief, said dozens of work orders to repair malfunctioning security cameras, busted parking garage gates and faulty doors were ignored. Courthouse officials made 34 requests to repair malfunctioning alarms, for instance, but only 12 requests were acknowledged.

Pennington said maintenance workers still haven't responded to the panel's requests for an explanation. At the same time, the sheriff's department has repeatedly failed to attend weekly meetings with the agency that oversees the repairs. Four of the last six meetings scheduled between the two departments have been canceled by the sheriff's department, said Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford, a member of the panel.

"A fire needs to be lit under somebody," Bedford said.

Even so, DeKalb County Sheriff Thomas Brown, a member of the panel, recommended giving Fulton County Sheriff Myron Freeman more authority to directly hire sheriff's staffers, rather than go through the county's personnel department.

A panel report recommended that 314 sworn officers should be assigned to the courthouse - a significant increase from the 200 to 235 officers now working in the building. Part of the problem, Brown said, is that sheriff's officials must wade through daunting red tape to fill vacancies.

"There is no way to easily fill the positions. That's the way the bureaucracy was designed," Brown said with a sigh.

Ultimately, the task force's recommendations will be in the hands of Freeman, who was besieged by calls for his resignation after the deadly shootings.

Brian Nichols, who was on trial on a rape charge, is accused of shooting Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes and court reporter Julie Ann Brandau in the courthouse and sheriff's Sgt. Hoyt Teasley outside the courthouse. A fourth victim, federal agent David Wilhelm, was killed at his home later in the day.