These days, walking through the metal detector at the Pennington County Courthouse is just a little tricky and requires plenty of patience.

A new Rapiscan metal detector was installed at the courthouse entrance about a month ago after the old machine broke down.

Anyone familiar with air travel knows to remove your shoes when you prepare to walk through an airport metal detector, Maj. Brian Mueller of the Pennington County Sheriff's Department said.

A similar situation is occurring at the courthouse, where it isn't uncommon for security officers to ask a woman to remove her sandals and step through the machine barefoot. Cowboy boots and metal-toed boots are also suspect.

While a stocking-footed visitor follows a carpeted path through the machine, footwear, purses, briefcases and heavy coats ride a conveyor through the X-ray machine.

Most visitors accept the inconvenience without complaint, but occasionally, security officers are the recipients of an angry outburst from stocking-footed individuals in a hurry.

"This machine is much more complex and sensitive than our old machine," Mueller said.

It's the same machine that the national Transportation Security Administration uses in airports and is found in most federal building, according to Mueller.

"There are many different adjustable settings on this machine," Mueller said. The machine was originally set on a very common setting - the same general setting for airport security.

When someone walks through the metal detector, they are monitored from head to toe by eight detection zones. A lighted grid on one side of the machine pinpoints the region of the body with too much metal. Green lights at the top change to red when too much metal passes through the machine. The new machine is especially sensitive closer to the floor, Mueller said.

People don't realize that sandals and many other shoe styles have a metal strip running down the middle of the arch.

"Right now, that machine is hitting on it, and a lot of people have to take their shoes off to get through that," Mueller said.

Security personnel are working to adjust the machine's sensitivity, but there are some compromises the sheriff's department is not willing to make.

"We ask the public and routine users to be patient," Mueller said.

The more metal the machine ignores in a pair of shoes or another zone, the higher the chance is that someone could smuggle a weapon into the courthouse, Mueller said.

"We have been re-evaluating the settings to maintain an appropriate balance between security in the courthouse and convenience for people who are using the courthouse," Mueller said.

The concern is for the safety everyone in the courthouse, Mueller said.

Many of the issues that bring people to the courthouse - divorce, child custody, criminal trials - are emotionally charged.

"There's a much higher percentage of a chance of being assaulted or even killed in violence at a courthouse than there is at the airport," Mueller said. The national trend is to increase security at courthouses, not relax it, he said.

At the entrance to the courthouse is a sign advising people that "firearms, knives of any size, multipliers, chemical pepper spray, tools or weapons" are not allowed in the courthouse. Visitors are advised to leave those items in their vehicle before entering the building.

Mueller suggests that routine courthouse users will have to learn to adapt to the machine's quirks and consider what they plan to wear.

People wearing steel-toed shoes or boots can expect to take their footwear off.

The machine will intentionally remain more sensitive to metal objects than the previous machine, Mueller said.

"People sometimes lose sight of the balance between safety and convenience, Muller said. "In the end, we're not willing to open the floodgates up to the tragedies that could occur in the courthouse and wait for that to happen. We're trying to be proactive to prevent a tragedy from happening."

Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or andrea.cook@rapidcityjournal.com.