DAYTON — The City of Dayton is making changes to City Hall to keep workers and visitors safe, starting with installing metal detectors at the entrances.
Many people think that City Hall is just for city commission meetings, but hundreds frequent the building to pay water or utility bills or have meetings with the 200 city employees that work there.
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City leaders say for their safety, going through a metal detector is the best protection for everyone. Today, the components of a magnetometer, or a metal detector, were delivered to City Hall.
“Really, it’s about accountability of who is doing what in this building, whether it’s employees or visitors,” Deputy City Manager Joe Parlette said.
He said the installation of these metal detectors is the most visible step of upgrades that began way back in 2016, which started with responses to an employee survey.
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“A few themes came out mostly safety and security,” Parlette said.
Dorothy Dugan, who comes to city hall every month to pay her water bill, says the new upgrades are good.
“I think it’s good because you got too many guns on these streets,” Dugan said.
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By the next time she enters City Hall, she will likely need to pass the fully assembled and tested metal detector to walk in and pay her bills.
“It’s a good thing, given how people are nowadays,” Dugan said.
City leaders are working to be proactive. Dayton has already installed dozens of new cameras, and warning signs and beefed up their private security staffing. Still, they felt that more could be done to ensure safety.
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City commission chambers are often filled with things like the recent peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstration. There are also often heated debates about housing, healthcare, and other issues/ The goal is to make the chambers, lobby, and workspaces as secure as possible.
“Anything we can do to provide a layer of safety because, ultimately, it’s a 100-year-old building,” Parlette said.
The metal detector that was delivered today will not be operational for another couple of weeks, as the vendor still has to assemble and test it. The city also plans to install a detector at the On-stop center on West Second Street that hosts employees from housing and several other departments.
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