Forest City, IA

The Winnebago County Courthouse will close at noon on Wednesday, March 18, to allow law enforcement officers to hold active shooter training in the building. ALICE training, which stands for “Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate,” is a program designed to provide employees with information about how to proceed in the event such an emergency arises. Winnebago County Auditor Karla Weiss saw a presentation on ALICE by Clinton County Auditor Eric Van Lancker, who also conducts ALICE training sessions. Weiss decided to see if it could be conducted in her county. “There’s a lot of talk about courthouse security,” Weiss said. “We train our employees on a lot of different things. Their safety should be one of them.” Read more