New security measures for Saratoga Springs City Council meetings [The Daily Gazette, Schenectady, N.Y.]

May 22—SARATOGA SPRINGS — People seeking to attend Saratoga Springs City Council meetings will now have to be wanded or walk through a metal detector and have their bags searched by police in the coming weeks to ensure a number of prohibited items, including weapons, are not brought into the meetings.

The measure, which was announced by Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll during the City Council meeting Tuesday night, comes after the city's new insurance company, New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal, recommended the city take such steps. Coll said they will begin the new measures in two weeks.

"I just want to say, it's not an indictment on any group, organization or individual," Coll said during the meeting. "I agree with the insurance company's report and I just think we've had some escalating issues, frustrations in our City Council meetings and, in an abundance of caution, we just want to have metal detectors running, not dissimilar to what we have at [Saratoga Performing Arts Center] or going to Proctors to watch a play. I think it's a small inconvenience so we can all be safe."

Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi asked whether there have been any instances where an official or attendee was assaulted, noting she couldn't recall any in the last three years she's sat on the council.

Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran said he has seen people carrying weapons at the meetings.

"I've been calling for this for about a year and half," he said.

A City Council meeting last year was ended early after a protest broke out during the meeting.

At another meeting last year, a woman could be seen approaching the City Council table during a heated debated with city officials and snatching a microphone off the table.

There have also been numerous other incidents of people interuppting the council during meetings and arguments among the audience.

In none of the instances were weapons ever seen drawn.

Coll said they're trying to be proactive in preventing any sort of situation.

Following the meeting, Coll indicated the policies and procedures surrounding how this would operate are still to be worked out. He said he is looking at this as a pilot program at the moment and is working to find less intrusive ways of searching people.

"We're trying to find the commercial metal detector system, which will be the least intrusive for folks, that technology is advanced so much where — the new metal detectors — you can get through them 10 times faster," he said.

The New York Civil Liberties Union told the Gazette that it will be keeping an eye on what comes of the measure.

"Democracy suffers when officials implement barriers that make it harder for the public to attend and participate in city council meetings," said Melanie Trimble, region director for the NYCLU Capital Region. "Our community is engaged, and Saratoga Springs residents want to communicate with their local lawmakers on the issues that matter to them. While safety is paramount, it's important that doesn't come at the cost of public participation and open engagement. NYCLU will be monitoring the policies, procedures, and the practices deployed by this City Council initiative."

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