The gov't office across the street now has a metal detector. Should I be concerned?

[FormerDittoHead]

At the risk of having this sink like a stone and no one caring, I'm posting this because I want to know if my nagging concern about this is justified.

My town is the "county seat" of my county. That means the Superior Court is here, family court, etc. etc. for the entire county. Across the street is a building which the county has taken over. It used to house the election board (which was REALLY quiet except for 2 day a year), but they moved out and now it's the office which manages child support payments.

I should add this is also one block away from the local high school.

Now, I don't know if I should be as worried as I am about this, but walking to the library today, I glanced in and there was a police woman and a full blown metal detection station.

Now, as an aside, I really made a mistake here. I popped my head in. I looked to get the eye of the guard. She told me to put my folder on the table (I was going to make copies of my tax return at the library) and told me to walk through the bars, or "fins", or whatever you'd call those things. I told her I wasn't coming in, I live right across the street, but, gesturing at the metal detection station, I asked, "Do you really need this thing?". She said, "Oh, yes" and asked me again to put my folder on the table.

Now, I turned around and walked out, but I later realized (you may think this funny) that she may have thought I had a GUN! but chickened out at the detector!

ANYWAY, that isn't the point of this. My point is that I honestly don't know if I should feel so funny about them NEEDING this at a place right across the street from where I live!

I mean, AND PLEASE DON'T JUDGE ME BUT... If a strip club were to want to move in across the street, I think I would have been given some notice about that and some opportunity for a hearing would be made...

I don't know about you, but I never saw a metal detector station even so much in a BANK (outside of the Federal Reserve bank in Philly, which I've been in).

If they NEED that metal detector, as they said they did, then MAYBE people are bringing guns around and, seriously, I wouldn't like the idea of those people literally walking right past my living room window.

I'm thinking about 1) calling my city council person 2) writing a letter to my mayor and 3) writing a letter to my local newspaper all with the same suggestion: HAVE THEM MOVE THAT OFFICE and take their "risky business" away from the houses around it, away from the school and into a more commercial area.

If I were a business, or owned a building, and I suddenly changed the nature of what I did, like, went from being a retail store into being a manufacturer, I think there would be all kinds of zoning or something involved that would allow public notification?

I just think that it must be nice to be on the OTHER side of that metal detector - to get that protection. I'd like, however, to think it wasn't NEEDED.

Am I being an alarmist? Or is this kind of thing really needed?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. They might have been getting threats.

If that's the office that manages child support payments, the people who work there might not be very popular with some of the deadbeat parents they are going after. It's not at all unusual for government buildings (especially courthouses and agencies relating to family court matters) to be subjected to threats and have to install metal detectors. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Even if somebody wanted to get in and harass or harm the employees in that building, they are not likely to be a threat to the neighborhood in general. It's more likely,anyhow, that the metal detectors are intended mostly as a deterrent.

[havocmom]

2. Or the head of the agency might have a friend who makes/sells metal detectors

Agencies tend to be headed by bushco/corporitist-favoring hacks these days.