County Goes Wireless For Courts

Saturday, May 18, 2013

BENTONVILLE — Benton County’s courthouse is 85 years old, but the judicial system wants to keep pace with 21st century technology.

Sidney Reynolds, information technology manager, said the county installed a wireless Internet access system. The service, designed to serve the courts, is open to anyone. The system is turned off on weekends, Reynolds said.

“Our requests for the service came in first from private defense attorneys in the courts,” Reynolds said. “They were wanting to have access to the Internet while they were in the courthouse and away from their offices. We had it set up where they could hardwire plug-in while they’re actually at the defense table, but there are other times when they might need to do some legal research or have documents sent to court.”

The county also began to get requests from people attending Quorum Court meetings and its committees for access to information available to justices of the peace during the meetings, Reynolds said.

“There are people who go to Quorum Court meetings and want to look up things we have on our dashboard,” Reynolds said. “A lot of people want to have access to the information while they’re at public meetings.”

At A Glance

County Wireless

Benton County has installed and made wireless Internet access available in the courthouse and the nearby courts buildings, the Sheriff’s Office and County Jail, the Public Services Building and the County Administration Building. The system can be accessed by accepting the user agreement when prompted. Designed for use by attorneys in the circuits courts, the system disconnects users after about one hour and requires the user to log onto the system again.

Source: Staff Report

Seth Bickett, a Bentonville attorney, is president of the Benton County Bar Association. He said having wireless Internet access is important for attorneys.

“A lot of attorneys spend many hours a day at the courthouse,” Bickett said. “They can get a lot of work done with the wi-fi access. By having the law library connected they can get up there and do research. The law library is also available to the public if someone is representing themselves in court.”

The association has worked with the county to renovate and update the law library on the fourth floor of the courthouse, Bickett said. The joint project has put new computers in the library to help with the legal research needs of the judicial system.

Having wireless Internet access is important to the smooth operation of the courts, Circuit Judge Robin Green said.

“I think it will be beneficial for the attorneys to be able to do research through the county’s wi-fi system,” Green said. “Like everything else, legal research is computerized these days.”

Green still restricts the use of technology in the courtroom, so the wi-fi access won’t change everything.

“People are instructed to turn their cellphones off by the bailiff at the beginning of all court sessions,” Green said. “But for attorneys who have laptops and are in the midst of trials and hearings it will certainly be beneficial.”

Bentonville discontinued its wireless Internet access on the downtown square recently and has no plans to reinstate it. Jonathan Rogers, city information technology manager, said the service is still available at the Bentonville Library and the Parks and Recreation building downtown. He said the service at the library is heavily used, and the city has received few complaints about the ending free wi-fi on the square.