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Security Ideas Away From the Courthouse for Judges, Spouses, and Family

Incidents of attempted harm to judges or their family members away from the courthouse are probably rare. Nonetheless, those incidents have been serious enough and have received enough publicity to warrant taking security precautions. It is also worthwhile to develop attitudes and activities that minimize concern for personal safety.

Stories of families that will not be intimidated by threats are encouraging. Some say that the one thing they would emphasize is the importance of good communications in the family generally. If a problem should arise for anyone, they will be able to bring it up because good communication lines are open. Judges and their families can take safety precautions, but still thoroughly enjoy their lives. Here is an area where considering the bigger picture and investing time to make other areas of public family life manageable can ease security challenges.

National Sheriff’s Association Trainer Edward Keyton and California Highway Patrol Sargeant Stephen W. Weston encourage judges to learn all they can about the patterns of individuals who have harmed public figures or buildings. Typically these persons had lost everything that matters to them. Losing their dignity was the last straw. A respectful attitude on the part of a judge who is deciding child custody or a criminal sentence can prevent many of the threats that are made to judges and their families.

National Center for State Courts former President Roger Warren points to an excellent booklet produced for federal courts by the U.S.Department of Justice U.S. Marshals Service, the Personal Security Handbook: How You and Your Family Can Minimize Risks to Personal Safety. We quote a few lines:

“ The potential danger associated with the life of a public official…is an unpleasant topic of conversation among family and friends. But avoiding the subject does not lessen the potential for harm.”

“Let’s put this matter of ‘threats’ in perspective. The potential for violence to you or your family is an important subject. When the rare incidents of assaults on public officials or attempts at intimidation do occur, they attract tremendous attention from the news media and, as a result, violence in one form or another seems to be everywhere. It is not! Nevertheless, you need to be informed, and to take sensible precautions-like discussing the matter with your family members.”

“As a practical matter, you are hundreds of times more likely to be injured from a fall at home or on the tennis court or to be killed in an automobile accident than to ever be involved in a work-related assault or hostage situation. The chances of you or your family becoming victims of that sort are very slight—and you can reduce the risk even further.”

Risks truly can be reduced by devising a security plan unique to one's own family. The suggestions that follow would be helpful to anyone, not just to people in public life. Before entering public life, many new judges and their families are already following several of the precautions listed. JFI is pleased to share here the security strategies of those who are managing to avoid problems and/or stay calm in crises. It may not be easy to decide what security precautions to take or what attitudes to adopt that will help everyone in the family. This list can help each judicial family identify some ways of approaching a custom-tailored security plan.

The Judicial Family Institute has compiled home security ideas from various sources. Many measures apply to any families, not just judges’ families. Countless judges and their family members have shared the ideas listed below. They also report using many of the techniques advocated by experts in law enforcement. Indiana State Police Officers have suggested many ideas for safety at home and while traveling. Their suggestions are interwoven in the list below. Additional suggestions from the National Judicial College are also included.

It is beneficial to view your own security plan with the perspective suggested below by former Indiana Judges’ Association President Paul Mathias in his analogy to traffic safety rules. The goal is preparation, not paranoia.
Some of the measures or attitudes shared below may not be appropriate in your community or circumstances, but are shared for your consideration.

Perspective

• Remembering that people and families like yours keep democratic principles and the rule of law alive through courage, commitment, and confidence. They will not be intimidated.
• Drawing a comparison to traffic safety issues and the many automobile accidents reported daily. We don’t lose confidence or stop driving.
• Awareness and taking precautions without catastrophizing what might happen.
• Realizing a judge may not get as many threats as an attorney, prosecutor, corporate head, university president, member of the clergy, social worker, psychiatrist, or person in another profession.
• Chatting with other judges and their spouses or families to learn how they function with confidence without being preoccupied with security.
• Talking with people in your faith community about resources and attitudes.
• Counseling with professionals such as Washington, D.C. Psychologist Dr. Isaiah Zimmerman, who has special expertise in helping judges.
• Being aware that threats and extra needs for security do not occur in a vacuum. Families in public life thrive when they minimize other sources of stress and maximize other sources of security.
• Always keeping calm and using logic if threatened or placed in a dangerous situation.

Planning

• Teaching your family what you have learned about judicial security with consideration for ages and individual needs.
• Getting the facts on incidents of actual harm to judges or their families in your area.
• Letting assigned law enforcement officials do a security analysis of your home.
• Having a plan if taken hostage.
• Having a fire safety plan for your home.
• Not keeping or carrying a weapon unless it is in proper working condition and you [and your family] have been trained in its proper use. Keeping your skills sharp by practicing frequently. A policeman’s wife accidentally shot her husband when he arrived home unexpectedly in the middle of the night without turning on the lights. A photographer’s child accidentally killed his father. Since judge’s families are not immune from accidents, instructing the whole household.
• Instructing family members not to trust strangers.
• Making sure state, county, and local police and local fire departments know where you live.

Home Security Strategies

• Using a home security system. Consulting Consumer Reports and local experts. The signal from your home should feed into an answering service capable of processing your call quickly. Some systems cause unnecessary delays because they receive too many other calls or excessive other accounts such as physicians’ answering services.
• Using an intercom system to answer the door. If a litigant appears at your door, explaining that the judge in your household can meet with them only at the office during office hours.
• Considering whether to have an audible or silent duress alarm.
• First looking through a peephole or knowing who is on the other side before answering the door. Avoiding opening your door to a stranger. Covering any glass panel next to your front door.
• Keeping a cellular telephone close at hand and/or by your bed.
• Using security lighting at your home.
• Installing deadbolt locks.
• Living in a gated community or building or at the end of a street or cul-de-sac.
• Not using your name on your mailbox or lamppost.
• Having dogs. Posting “Beware of the Dog” signs
• Listening to your pet birds, who are typically hypersensitive to the sounds of strangers.

Mail and Newspaper Safety

• Never opening suspicious packages. Calling law enforcement or the U.S. Postal Service if packages or letters arrive with grease marks or no return address. Calling the U.S. Postal Service for speakers or a flier describing bombs in the mail.
• When going out of town, making arrangements with others to have your mail and newspapers secured.

Campaigning Precautions

• Arranging for security at parades, dinners, and events.
• Taking someone along for door-to-door campaigning.
• Avoiding riding in parades unless there are provisions made for security and crowd control.
• Appearing at campaign fundraising events only when you have arranged for security. Considering control of admission by invitations or limited ticket sales or distribution.
• Not personally posting or removing your campaign signs if you can have someone else do it for you.
• Avoiding use of your residence address on any campaign materials.
• Limiting your campaign signs at your residence or bumper stickers on your personal vehicles.

Travel and Vehicle Techniques

• Traveling with a cell phone. Making sure battery is fully charged.
• When you’re in your automobile, keeping the doors locked at all times.
• Varying your travel routes and times, i.e. shopping, work, school, etc.
• Keeping your name off assigned parking spaces at home and at work.
• Avoiding going alone to events or on trips.
• Before entering your vehicle, being sure there are not bombs behind the wheels or tampering with the hood. One judge routinely checks a string tied on the hood and car doors to assure no one has broken in. Taking a quick examination of the interior looking for any signs of hidden persons or tampering.
• Avoiding being paranoid, but being aware if someone is staring at you or following you in a place other than the courthouse.
• Avoiding personalized license plates.
• Not having distinguishing plates on vehicles. Some people feel safer with distinguishing plates, but the Indiana State Police think that makes you a target.
• Parking in well-lighted areas.
• When leaving a shopping center, having key in hand and ready to insert in the lock rather than fumbling for the key at the car.
• When involved in a minor property damage vehicle crash, use your cell phone to call law enforcement, but without identifying yourself as a judge or judge’s family member. Request that the driver of the other vehicle follow you to a well-lighted area to exchange pertinent information.
• If you are traveling without speeding on an isolated country road at night and an unmarked car with a flashing light attempts to stop you, without identifying yourself as a judge or judge’s family member, use your cell phone to call the police station to confirm that they use an unmarked car. If not, tell them your location.
• Not transporting your judicial robe in your automobile by hanging it up unless it is covered with colored paper, plastic, [or fabric carrier] to disguise it. If not covered, laying it flat in your back seat or trunk
• Avoiding becoming physically involved in the subduing, chase, or apprehension of disorderly persons or escapees.
• When out of town for a long period of time, making arrangements with someone to move your vehicles to a different location.
• Letting law enforcement know when you and your family are out of town.
• Not leaving your luggage unattended anywhere.
• Avoiding using your full name and title or home address on luggage tags.

Media Contact

• Encouraging media to avoid showing photographs of your family or your residence after there has been an incident of court-related news or violence. Investing time to get acquainted with media personnel will help them understand your concerns.
• Avoiding being quoted in the news in such a manner as to make the public think you fear violence or that you think you are not at risk. Such quotes can be taken either as an invitation or as a challenge.
• Not allowing the media to learn the names, ages, or schools of your minor children.
• Not telling the news media the security you have in place.
• Not upgrading any photographs that may be on file with the news media or the government if you can avoid it. An exception is the photograph that should accompany an official “Personal and Family Information Sheet” which is confidentially maintained.

Communication Ideas

• Addressing people with a tone of respect and humility rather than anger or sarcasm.
• Using a home telephone answering machine to screen calls.
• Not announcing your name and phone number on the outgoing message of your home answering machine.
• Never providing personal information to anyone, i.e. when, where, and times that family members are to arrive. Not announcing to the public that you are going out of town for vacation, school, or business. In public discussing ideas or past activities rather than future activities with friends, barber, hairdresser, repairmen, and others. Letting your friends and extended family know your travel plans are confidential.
• Only individuals with a need to know having knowledge that your family is connected with the judiciary. If asked, identifying yourself or your spouse as an attorney, government employee, etc.
• Not allowing strangers to overhear your personal telephone calls.
• If you discover vandalism to your home, call law enforcement directly. Keep that number on your person and near telephones at your home. Avoid calling 911 or other switchboards broadcast on citizen’s band radios. One family reports their call to 911 reached journalists who rushed to their home and later published their address in the newspaper.

Service Calls

• Always verifying the legitimacy and reputation of individuals performing any work at your residence.
• Always requiring credentials from individuals performing work at your home.

Ways of Handling Threats

• Reporting any threats. Studies suggest some people making threats are trying to get attention and will escalate their activities if not regarded. Law enforcement officials are equipped to discern the difference between mere ventilation and a true concern.
• Taking self-defense courses.
• Assigning divorce and custody cases to mediation. Litigants who reach their own conclusions on family money and custody tend not to retaliate against the judge or the judge’s family.
• Leaving the children with someone you trust for a few days.
• Using telephone “caller identification” or asking the telephone company or law enforcement to have suspicious calls traced.
• Questioning whether attempts to assassinate prominent figures such as the President correlate with threats. Visiting http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij, the National Institute of Justice website to obtain an electronic version of Protective Intelligence and Threat Assessment Investigations or calling (800) 851-3420.
• Not sounding intimidated. One spouse responds to telephone threats with humor: “I don’t take that type of call here at home, you’ll have to call the office at 999 9999.”
• Acting like you’re crazy if someone who seems to want to harm you approaches you.

Information Management

• Having an unlisted or unpublished telephone number and address.
• If you must put the telephone number in the telephone book, excluding the address.
• Having all bills and credit card accounts sent to the office or a post office box.
• Avoiding use of the title “Judge” on your personal checks, credit cards, airline tickets, etc.
• Requesting that your name not be included in the city directory.
• Asking federal census takers to exclude your social security number and other relevant information from published lists.
• Avoiding use of the home address on driver’s license, checkbook, return address, and telephone book. Some use a post office box or office address.
• Shredding identifying or personal papers.
• Removing any mailing labels containing your name and home address from subscription magazines before taking them to the courthouse.
• Not displaying photographs of your family in your office where visitors can see them, but turning them towards you.

Public Contact

• Not putting your child’s name on personal clothing
• Avoiding becoming intoxicated in public places, therefore becoming vulnerable.
• Avoiding wearing shirts or caps that identify you as a judge when you’re out in public. “Have Gavel will Travel,” “Take The Law Into Your Own Hands, Hug A Judge,” “Here Comes The Judge,” etc. are all right for around the house or while attending judicial seminars, but may be too risky elsewhere.

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