Court Houses

North☆Star

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Joined
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Minnesota
Ok guys... Court houses are county property so does a person need to ask if your certain there are no metal detecting restrictions on county land, or just go for it? I know the better option is to always ask first but just wondering if anyone has experience with them and how things went!
 
North☆Star;2806945 said:
Ok guys... Court houses are county property so does a person need to ask if your certain there are no metal detecting restrictions on county land, or just go for it? I know the better option is to always ask first but just wondering if anyone has experience with them and how things went!

Those courthouse lawns that surround County courthouses are usually under the domain of "county parks" dept.

So why have to "ask" anyone? Why can't you just look up the rules for County Parks yourself ? And if nothing there says "no metal detecting ", then presto: It's not prohibited. Eh ?
 
Naturally, like ANY nice turfed park: you go at low traffic hours to avoid busy bodies.
 
Some courthouses still contain county jails, so be aware that if that is the case where you are, you may come under much more scrutiny than if there is no jail in the building.
 
Those courthouse lawns that surround County courthouses are usually under the domain of "county parks" dept.

So why have to "ask" anyone? Why can't you just look up the rules for County Parks yourself ? And if nothing there says "no metal detecting ", then presto: It's not prohibited. Eh ?

Because I didn't know if they were under the domain of "county parks" or if they were treated differently as it's a Court House. I'm in town for the weekend and it's closed till Monday so I figured my next best option was here. Sorry for the silly question.
 
Active court houses are often a source of county or community pride and these days most are under close scrutiny by law enforcement. MANY are considered of historical importance even if not on any registry of historical places. I would suggest with such a high profile and watched properties like court houses , that permission be sought. My wife who works at our county court house , told me that if I go detecting there I will surely leave in handcuffs :lol: and she was not kidding. Even though there is no specific rules against it , its automatically distruction of property at the court house , they don't play around and they don't waste any time when it comes to protecting such a high profile piece of property.

It may not be that way at EVERY court house , but consider yourself warned....
 
North☆Star;2806974 said:
Because I didn't know if they were under the domain of "county parks" or if they were treated differently as it's a Court House. I'm in town for the weekend and it's closed till Monday so I figured my next best option was here. Sorry for the silly question.



There is a huge difference between a county park and a county courthouse lawn even if technically they did both fall under parks domain.....that just means the county parks " maintain " it ,....cut the grass , trim the trees , plant flowers , etc. The property itself does not belong to the parks and its designated use and high profile status is what can easily get you cuffed and stuffed with no recourse. Some places may be more lax and you may get away with doing it without asking first , but if you just show up and start poking around with a detector.....as someone else said on another thread about this ,....you may get a chance to see the inside of the courthouse too :lol:
 
There is a huge difference between a county park and a county courthouse lawn even if technically they did both fall under parks domain.....that just means the county parks " maintain " it ,....cut the grass , trim the trees , plant flowers , etc. .....

Well ........ whether it's a county "park" or whether it's merely county "land" that happens to be maintained by the same park's crews, then ...... EITHER WAY, it's still "County" land. Right ? (Since courthouses are county-run).

So while you could worry yourself silly that possibly county parks rules don't apply (if it's not defined as a 'park'), then you STILL have the option (if you're still worried) to then simply look up county general ordinances.

What I mean is: No law or rule is ever "secret". Anyone can simply look up rules/laws/ordinances for their county land. Hence, sure, not all county land is county PARK land, but that would simply mean you go to 2 different sources : A) county park rules, B) General county laws/ordinances.

And you're probably thinking "why go through all the trouble ? Why not simply ask a desk clerk there ?" Here's why: Because you'll subject yourself to the potential psychology of "no one cared ....... UNTIL you asked" phenomenon :(
 
.......you may get a chance to see the inside of the courthouse too :lol:

Ohio-Chris, I have detected multiple courthouse lawns in several states. Can you cite any incident of someone being cuffed and jailed and "seeing the inside of the courthouse" as a result of md'ing a court-house lawn ?

I mean, barring an obvious historic sensitive monument (or something signed "no md'ing"). If you can find any incident of someone getting legal ramifications, it will invariably be someone who couldn't take a warning, or someone being totally obnoxious and arguing with a "scram". Or someone night-sneaking an obvious historic sensitive monument leaving a mess, or .......... some such exception.

For run-of-mill routine lawns (that are park-like in their features) that surround court-houses, I have never heard of someone facing the imminent woes you describe. Got any examples ?
 
Ohio-Chris, I have detected multiple courthouse lawns in several states. Can you cite any incident of someone being cuffed and jailed and "seeing the inside of the courthouse" as a result of md'ing a court-house lawn ?

I mean, barring an obvious historic sensitive monument (or something signed "no md'ing"). If you can find any incident of someone getting legal ramifications, it will invariably be someone who couldn't take a warning, or someone being totally obnoxious and arguing with a "scram". Or someone night-sneaking an obvious historic sensitive monument leaving a mess, or .......... some such exception.

For run-of-mill routine lawns (that are park-like in their features) that surround court-houses, I have never heard of someone facing the imminent woes you describe. Got any examples ?


As I said , they may be more lax in some areas however they do not allow it at my county courthouse. If caught , you are at their discretion , they can call it anything they want to call it....though technically in the state of Ohio , the official wording of the law already calls it criminal trespass to enter a property and use it for other than its designated use and It is no defense to a charge under this section that the land or premises involved was owned, controlled, or in custody of a public agency....so there is no squirming out of it if they wanted to press charges. And they are picky about what is done to the property around my countys courthouse. Now the question is.....which court houses have similar expectations and which states have similar wording in the law ?....if you don't know for sure then there is risk. The point is ... " there is no specific rule " .....or....." nobody told me I couldn't " will not always cover your backside. I never said all court houses are off limits.....but do you know which ones are ? A court house lawn is not at all the same as the parks ,....this is just common sense. Argue that point if you want but you are giving out reckless advice.
 
I think the best policy for any metal detectorist is to stay under the radar of local law enforcement. When one does activities that are publicly observed, the radar can greatly effect future activities. Once you've done something to get on the radar, you can pretty much guarantee that you'll have the full attention of every cop in the city/county. One sees you detecting on county property, he'll tell his buddies to watch out for you. Depending on the mentality of the officers in that agency, they may see you as a nuiscance and you'll be stopped every time you don't stop behind that white line, or don't use your blinker 100 feet prior to the intersection. This goes back to the other "trespassing" thread a while back. And my argument is, why chance it? Sure, you might detect 100 courthouses with no problem. Then at 101, the sheriff is the one too see you, and "by golly I'll be damned if someone is gonna deface my property" (spits into spittoon). Then you're sitting next to Bubba in a jail cell. So my suggestion is, have your bail money ready. There very well may be zero examples of someone being arrested for that. Have fun being the first. I haven't been on the forum that long, but I've noticed one thing. On most conversations concerning what you should or should not do, the majority of the people give the same response. Then there's always the one person that wants to argue with everyone else because of "no cited examples" and what not. That's all we'll and good, but when you get stopped "a guy on a forum said I was good" probably won't fly. I'll compare this to a jury. If you're arrested, you could face a jury of your peers. Everyday, average Joe people. If you have numerous people of good sense giving you the advice not to do something, how do you think a jury is going to perceive your actions? My apologies for the rant, but if you are uncertain enough that you have to ask a forum what they think, it's probably best to move on.
 
North☆Star;2807124 said:
Wow....Everybody needs to take a chill pill

:lol: North Star, you have unwittingly stumbled into what I like to call one of the "dead zone" topics here on the forum.

No permission query ever turns out very well, and many of them go off the rails fast, and are eventually euthanized by the mods. It's not you, I promise you!

Think of it as being similar in nature to discussing politics and religion, these types of threads just seem doomed from the start. :lol::yes:
 
Just common sense tells me that our courthouse grounds in my hometown would be off limits. But if a person were able to detect it would be a coin hunters dream site:grin:

I look at the courthouse grounds like other historic sites.....off limits but not out of mind. I can drool but not touch.....like beautiful Women.
 
Active court houses are often a source of county or community pride and these days most are under close scrutiny by law enforcement. MANY are considered of historical importance even if not on any registry of historical places. I would suggest with such a high profile and watched properties like court houses , that permission be sought. My wife who works at our county court house , told me that if I go detecting there I will surely leave in handcuffs :lol: and she was not kidding. Even though there is no specific rules against it , its automatically distruction of property at the court house , they don't play around and they don't waste any time when it comes to protecting such a high profile piece of property.

It may not be that way at EVERY court house , but consider yourself warned....

Seen it happen, well he didn't get arrested, but did get ran off. Sucked too, I had permission to detect there and lost it because this guy didn't get proper permission, first.... Just assumed, like some on this post are telling others to do... didn't work out for him, or me in the end...
 
North☆Star;2806945 said:
Ok guys... Court houses are county property so does a person need to ask if your certain there are no metal detecting restrictions on county land, or just go for it? I know the better option is to always ask first but just wondering if anyone has experience with them and how things went!

The areas around the courthouse can be good spots too, even if you don't get to detect the courthouse lawn itself :)
 
I don't see anything more than getting run off, happening..

If you go at the wrong time, it might happen in 20 minutes...

On a different time and day, you might not even get run off..

Also know, any "run off" can be escalated into an arrest, if your attitude favors that route...

Good luck!

<°)))>{
 
Chris. Good points that I can tell you are thinking through fairly.

... the official wording of the law already calls it criminal trespass to enter a property and use it for other than its designated use and It is no defense to a charge under this section that the land or premises involved was owned, controlled, or in custody of a public agency.......

I'm sure this can be said of any speck of public land. It's the nebulous catch-all ability the governing authority can use to boot persons for using an otherwise public place, for PURPOSES FOR WHICH IT'S NOT INTENDED. I get it.

There is always catch-all verbiage such as that, like laws that "forbid annoyances", for example. Because it's simply impossible for laws to be written to cover every conceivable thing that *might* come up in the field. Hence these catch-all type wordings exist. To employ as need be, too usher away someone being a nusiance.

But me thinks your taking this and turning it around the other way. Such that an activity needs to be *expressly allowed*, in order to be able to be the "purpose for which it's intended". But think of it, when have you EVER seen a park, or field, or sandbox, or beach, that was labled "for metal detecting". Or a sign saying "metal detecting allowed here" ? See ? There is never any land set aside for the express purpose of md'ing.

So I do not see the statute you list as necessarily precluding md'ing. There are scores of things that go on in parks all the time: Bird-watching, frisbee, hopscotch, etc... Why does one need to assume that md'ing is disallowed, till given a princely express "yes" to the contrary ? Any more so than other innocuous activities ?

Yes I agree that someone in authority does indeed have the say so to come alert you that they feel your chosen activity is outside the scope of "purpose". In the same way they could come tell the person flying the frisbee to stop (heck, you might poke someone's eye out). But does that mean you needed to pre-empt it with permission ? No.

... A court house lawn is not at all the same as the parks ,....

Perhaps it's not a county or city "park". But haven't you noticed how they are defacto parks anyhow ? Eg.: park benches, trees, lawns, drink fountain, blah blah blah. In every sense of the word park. Whether or not it's merely an expanded parking strip that just happens to surround the court-house, or whether or not it's listed in their list of "county parks", is a non-issue. Because the bottom line is:

a) the public is allowed there.

b) it functions as a park (all semantics aside)

c) the rules of use (ie.: things forbidden) are no secret. Anyone can look them up in county ordinances, and/or park rules (both if they're skittish and want to cover both bases fearing it's not a "park").
 
... There very well may be zero examples of someone being arrested for that. Have fun being the first. .....

On the one hand you seem to be acknowledging that there doesn't seem to be "imminent threat" of jail for md'ing a spot like this. Yet you say: "have fun being the first". As if to turn right around and imply again that this IS an imminent threat , all over again. :?:

And while it's true that *anything's possible*, at what point can fears become overblown ? Ever ?

Example: You *might* get mowed down by a mack truck the next time you cross the street. If I point out that this is extremely rare, and people cross the street ALL THE TIME without getting hit by mack trucks, you could reply in the same way: "have fun being the first". As if to imply, it's too risky and dangerous to cross the street ?

Sure, let's not throw caution to the wind. If a spot looks too uppity up (or a sensitive historic monument, etc....) then sure, don't throw caution to the wind. But I am certain that if there were no express law or rule that said "no md'ing", that you would in all likelihood just be informed with a "scram" at worst.
 
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