Senators press for judges' safety
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Printable FormatCHICAGO TRIBUNE
By Jeff Zeleny, Washington Bureau. Andrew Zajac of the Tribune's Washington Bureau contributed to this report
Durbin, Obama irked over delay in installing home security systems
WASHINGTON -- Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama of Illinois met Friday with the head of the U.S. Marshals Service to voice frustration over what they call a lack of progress in establishing new safety measures to protect federal judges.
Seven months ago, Congress approved money to provide home security systems for members of the federal judiciary after U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow's husband and mother were slain by a disgruntled litigant in Chicago. But the government has yet to resolve who would pay the monthly fee for the security service.
The Justice Department has resisted efforts to have the Marshals Service pay the bill for all judges, which Durbin said was unacceptable considering Congress in May devoted $12 million for judicial security.
"This monthly monitoring has turned out to be a tempest in a teapot," Durbin said. "We want this monthly charge off the table. There's plenty of money in the appropriation."
Earlier this month, the senators aired their concerns in a letter to Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales. Since then, the Marshals Service entered into a contract on Monday with ADT Security, but the Justice Department and the federal judiciary have not agreed on who should pay the monthly service fee.
Charles Kocoras, chief judge of U.S. District Court in Chicago, welcomed the senators' intercession. "Washington is bleeding red ink," making spending decisions especially tough, he said, but added: "I think somebody's got to bite the bullet and decide one way or another" about which expenses to cover.
The Illinois senators expressed their concerns Friday to John Clark, the acting director of the U.S. Marshals Service. Clark, who recently had a meeting in Chicago with Lefkow and more than 20 other judges about security issues, vowed to resolve the matter.
Obama said he and Durbin told Clark to give them "an immediate written update" for how and when the security systems would be installed.
Don Hines, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service, said officials would meet with the security company next week. "We expect the installations to begin in the near future," he said.
Durbin said that he expected the security improvements to be in place within a month.
"This should have been done a long time ago," Durbin said. "If you wanted an ADT service in your home, you'd have it in 30 days. Let's be very blunt about this. God forbid something happens. How do you explain it, after it's taken seven months? I don't think there is a good explanation."
The systems were a priority earlier this year after the murders of Lefkow's husband and mother as well as an escaped prisoner's rampage in Atlanta that led to the deaths of a state judge, a federal agent and two other people. But the dispute between the federal judges and the Marshals Service has contributed to the delay of nationwide installation of the devices.
Some judges, however, did not wait and purchased their own security systems, which Durbin said created another potential problem because the Marshals Service doesn't have the resources to respond to each alarm. The service decided that local police should be the first to respond, unless it's a specific matter of judicial security.
"If a judge at home feels some threat," Durbin said, "then they call the marshal service."
Clark faces a Senate confirmation hearing early next year.
Federal judges have said they are hopeful that he would pay more attention to their security concerns and provide stability to the agency, because he is a career marshal and not an outside appointee like his predecessor, Benigno Reyna, a former Texas police chief.