About six weeks after a half-dozen state lawmakers found orange gun sight cross-hair stickers on their office nameplates, an effort has started to increase capitol security.
The person who put the stickers on the nameplates has not been found. Senator Robin Wright-Jones of St. Louis, one of those who got one of the stickers, says the incident shows security cameras should be mounted in the hallways and the state should be able to hire a private security company to supplement capitol police.
But other senators warn against over-reacting. And one, Senator Tim Green of Spanish Lake, thinks the present capitol police force can adequately handle building security. He says private security people just walk around and when there’s trouble, the call capitol police.
A private company ran metal detectors in the capitol for months after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the east. But those operations later shut down because the state couldn’t afford them.
Jones has put her bill aside before getting it to a vote
