City councilmembers have unanimously approved an ordinance transitioning the municipal court to a court of record.
“Court of record is something we’ve been wanting to do for quite a while, and it gives our court power, Presiding Judge Cass Robert Callaway said at the Tuesday, Jan. 6, council meeting.
“Where it really gives us power is with our police department,” Callaway said. “Statutorily, I’m an attorney/judge, but I have to have a court of record backing me to be able to do certain types of search warrants, certain types of levels of things. And this finally gives me the ability to assist our CID (Criminal Investigations Division), our PD, in a much bigger way than I have in the past.”
Assistant City Manager Jared Mayfield said the change would be easy.
“The only difference is it requires our court to create a formal record and transcript of the proceedings,” Mayfield said. “We have the staff to be able to do that, and the equipment to be able to do that. It’s just not something that we’ve been required to do. Our clerks were trained to do it, and so staff does recommend transitioning the court over to that.”
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