In advance of next week's webinar on Securing America's Justice Courts and in light of yesterday's shootings at the Lloyd D. George U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building in Las Vegas, we caught up with Lt. Jimmie Barrett to discuss safety and security at our nation's courts. Barrett is the author of Protecting Court: A Practitioner's Guide to Court Security, and is the Court Security Supervisor for the Sheriff's Office of Arlington County, Va. He provides court security and judicial threat management training through the Virginia Center of Policing Innovation. Registration for his webinar with SecurityInfoWatch.com on Jan. 14, 2010, at 1 p.m. ET is free and currently open; the webinar will be archived.

Barrett's thoughts on the current state of security at our nation's court facilities appear below:

SIW: From what you have seen, are our nation's court facilities properly protected?

Barrett: In the broadest sense we are providing protection -- but there is significant room for improvement -- both in terms of funding and training. The type of protection provided to our courthouses varies widely. While some courthouses have elaborate security measures such as pop-up bollards, robust screening stations, secure underground parking, perimeter camera systems, and highly motivated security personnel, too many do not. There still exist numerous courthouses across the country, primarily at the state and local levels that do not even have a magnetometer and have parking lots where their judiciary park with the public.

Is the lack of protection that face many courts a product of lack of funding to implement proper security elements (deputies, technical security systems, etc.), or is this largely a problem of not enough education about how to protect courts?