Hurrying into court one recent morning to deal with a speeding ticket, Kandice Madison brushed past the notices posted on the glass doors of the Baltimore County District Court in Towson.
"NO CELL PHONES ALLOWED IN DISTRICT COURT BUILDINGS," the signs, on letter-size paper, read.
Moments later, Madison was back out the door, phone in hand.
"It's kind of inconvenient," the 20-year-old West Baltimore resident said, expressing frustration at being told to return her phone to her car, which was parked eight blocks away. "I'm already late for my court date. I can't go all the way back to my car."
So, she scurried off to find a bush where she could hide her phone.
Madison, like other courthouse visitors, was caught off-guard by a new policy in Baltimore County's three District Court buildings in Towson, Essex and Catonsville. Unlike the county's Circuit Court and many other circuit and district courthouses across the state that prohibit only camera phones, the district courts in Baltimore County began banning all cell phones this month.
Judge Alexandra N. Williams, administrative judge of Baltimore County's district courts, said the new rules were instituted for a reason other than the one most people might expect.
"Gangs prompted the ban on cell phones," Williams told a recent gathering of the county's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, explaining that a gang member was seen taking pictures in court of judges, police officers and witnesses with a camera phone. "So when you see the signs [banning phones], it's not because they were ringing in court."
As court officials have grown more sensitive to potential security risks and cell phone technology has advanced, adding photographic, video, walkie-talkie and text-messaging capabilities to devices that used to be nothing more than miniature, portable telephones, courthouses have responded in various ways.
According to the Maryland Court Information Office, courthouses in Baltimore City and in Frederick, Washington, Prince George's, Kent, Cecil, Harford and Howard counties prohibit cell phones that take pictures, primarily because cameras are not allowed in courts statewide.
District courts in Allegany, Garrett, Montgomery, Talbot, Caroline, Queen Anne's, Howard, Carroll and Anne Arundel counties allow all cell phones, but generally require visitors to turn them off or keep them silent while in the courtroom.
