HAMILTON — Butler County Common Pleas judges and county commissioners disagree on what security measures need to be taken to protect those who work in the Butler County Government Services Center.

        People now must pass through second-floor metal-detectors, manned by sheriff's deputies, to enter the second- and third-floor courtroom areas.

        But the judges want metal detectors at the first-floor entrances to the center, which houses county offices, and its connecting building, One Renaissance Center, which contains mostly Hamilton city offices.

        “We want the whole building secure,” presiding Common Pleas Judge Matthew Crehan told commissioners. “It's not just for the judges. It's for other offices, like the Child Support Enforcement Agency. A lot of angry people come in there.”

        But commissioners strongly oppose making everyone who enters the building pass through a checkpoint.

        “We don't want people to have to go through security to come to our meetings,” Commissioner Courtney Combs said.

        “It's inconvenient and it's time-consuming. I don't want to see a line of people half-way down the block waiting to get into the building.”

        Judge Crehan raised the security concerns Thursday because the county must prepare courtroom and office space for an additional Common Pleas judge, who will be elected in November.

        There's no more room on the third floor, where the other Common Pleas courtrooms are located.

        The county will either have to add another courtroom on a floor that has no security checkpoint or use the super courtroom daily. The super courtroom is used only for large legal proceedings and has no permanent security checkpoint.

        Commissioners don't want metal detectors set up permanently outside the super courtroom's current entrance because's it's near the commissioner's conference room.

        Another option is to place a Common Pleas Court in the old courthouse, two blocks from the center.

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