DOVER, Del. (AP) - Legislative budget writers have approved more than $1.5 million in new spending to beef up security at Delaware courthouses.
Among the spending approved Tuesday by members of the Joint Finance Committee is $1 million to hire 16 new Capitol Police officers in the fiscal year starting July 1. Lawmakers also appropriated $392,000 for eight security officers to be assigned to Justice of the Peace courts.
The budget bill is to be voted on next month.
Committee members also approved funding for other security improvements, including more surveillance cameras.
The move comes in the wake of a February shooting at the New Castle County courthouse in Wilmington, in which a gunman targeted and killed his former daughter-in-law and another woman before taking his own life.
