Mounting concerns over courthouse safety in the First Judicial District recently spurred court leaders to demand action, with the Administrative Governing Board ordering the Philadelphia Sheriff's Office to respond to increasing “security failures” in the city’s courts.

The board's Dec. 9 order asserted that a lack of security personnel and a surge in security incidents in recent years has posed “an imminent threat to the safety and health of all persons present in the courthouses, courtrooms and court facilities, including members of the public, parties, victims, witnesses, attorneys, jurors, court staff and judges.”