News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The DeKalb County Court System has started utilizing live video feeds for criminal arraignment hearings.
Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin said the new system helps reduce the risk of a security threat at the county courthouse.
“On a typical circuit criminal day, we may have as many as 45 inmates to be brought over,” Martin said, “and we simply do not have the room in our courthouse to house them where they’re not a threat or a danger to anyone.”
Martin said the video feed allows the judge to see the inmate at the jail and conduct the arraignment remotely.
“On the judge’s bench, the judge has a video camera and his system set up,” Martin said. “In our circuit courtroom, there’s a projector so… the real-time feed will be on the screen and in our general sessions courtroom it’ll be on the television.”
Martin said the county’s previous circuit court clerk and current county mayor Tim Stribling helped get grant funding to purchase the system.
