There will be more security officers at the Berrien County Courthouse in St. Joseph following a deadly shooting there last month.

On Thursday, the Berrien County Board of Commissioners unanimously authorized the placement of two additional full-time sheriff’s deputies at the courthouse in St. Joseph.

The move comes a few weeks after an inmate wrestled a gun from a deputy and killed two courthouse bailiffs before being killed by responding officers during an escape attempt July 11 at the courthouse in St. Joseph.

The commissioners also authorized the purchase of more restrictive handcuffs for inmates and new holsters for deputies assigned to work inside the courthouse. Bailey said the handcuffs would be secured to the waste of the inmate, limiting the use of his or her hands. Bailey explained the new “level three” holsters would make it more difficult for someone to take a deputy’s gun.

“The most immediate needs were taken care of last night,” said Bailey.

Bailey said the move means there are three full-time deputies working the St. Joseph courthouse and two full-time deputies working in other county courthouse in Niles.

Bailey said there were three full timers in St. Joseph and three full timers in Niles prior to budget cuts in 2005.

“We are going back to what we used to have,” he said. “We are still down one in Niles and that is something we will talk about in the upcoming meetings.”

Bailey said the next meeting about courthouse security would take place Aug. 18 with an ad-hoc committee comprised of himself, other sheriff’s department personnel, courthouse personnel and a representative from the county commissioners.

“We are going over everything in detail to make sure it is safe for the public and safe for the employees that work there,” he said.

Bailey also said two deputies — or one bailiff and one deputy — would be required to move an inmate from the holding cell to the courtroom and back. In the case of the deadly shooting, the inmate was being transported out of the courtroom by just one deputy.

Bailey said the two-person policy was already in place, but was not being utilized 100 percent of the time due to “being short staffed and getting busy.”

“We’ve done it for quite a few years with no incident, but unfortunately a terrible thing happened and we are reviewing everything we are doing,” he said. “We are going to go back to having more employees so we make sue no one is getting moved by themselves.”