S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal has taken another step toward improving security at courthouses statewide.

Toal recently issued an order requiring the formation of a committee in each of the state’s 46 counties to assess courthouse security needs.

Each county committee will be co-chaired by a designated circuit or family court judge and the county sheriff. Committee members will include the county clerk of court, chief magistrate, a chief of police, solicitor, public defender and emergency preparedness manager.

Rosalyn Frierson, director of the state Office of Court Administration, said Friday she was sending out checklists to the respective committees. The checklists will include, for example, questions about the number of court buildings in the county and the number of metal detectors at each building.

“Our goal is to see where we stand and to have an assessment by the end of December,” she said.

Toal was out of the country last week and was unavailable for comment.

After three people were shot to death in March at an Atlanta courthouse, Toal said she and State Law Enforcement Division Chief Robert Stewart planned to develop a series of meetings with court and law enforcement officials on improving courthouse security in South Carolina.

Several S.C. judges were threatened after the Atlanta shootings; in two cases, the warnings included references to Atlanta.

More than 1,750 charges of threatening a public official or employee were made statewide in the past five years, though state court records didn’t specify how many were directed at judges.

An investigation by The State newspaper published in April found security problems at S.C. courthouses, including a lack of metal detectors at some small courthouses and a lack of security officers at magistrate and municipal courts, where most court cases are heard.

Courthouse security also was on the minds of the nation’s state supreme court chief justices and top court administrators during a meeting last month in Charleston.

The Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators passed a resolution asking the federal government to provide funding directly to state courts for “security preparedness and response.”

The resolution also called on each chief justice and state court administrator to conduct assessments of their respective courts to “determine their vulnerability to natural or man-made disasters.”

Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484 or rbrundrett@thestate.com.