Next time you want to find out the value of the home of a member of the local, state or federal judiciary who lives in Allegheny County, be prepared to employ shoe leather instead of your fingertips.

That's because the names of more than 100 judges were removed this week from the county's real estate Web site, so it is no longer possible to search for their properties by name. It is still possible to search by name at the county Property Assessment office in the County Office Building on Forbes Avenue, Downtown.

The reason the names were removed?

Security.

Though the decision was made by County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, the initial request to remove the names of judges came from the other end of Grant Street from Chief U.S. District Judge Donetta W. Ambrose.

Ambrose, concerned after the murder of a federal judge's family in Chicago in February and courthouse shootings in Atlanta a month later, talked with Common Pleas Court President Judge Joseph James a few months ago about the security of local judges. Security was not a new issue, but it took on a greater sense of importance after the violence in Chicago and Atlanta, Ambrose said yesterday.

"It's a big issue in the federal judiciary," Ambrose said.

Ambrose checked with her colleagues at the federal courthouse and wrote a letter to James in April with a request that the names of the federal judges be removed from the county's real estate Web site. The request did not affect Ambrose, who lives in Westmoreland County.

James also was concerned with security, so he consulted with county judges and magisterial district judges and decided their names would also be removed from the real estate Web site, Court Administrator Ray Billotte said. The names of state judges on Commonwealth and Superior courts and of Supreme Court justices who live in Allegheny County also were removed.

Some judges asked that their names not be removed, but they were in the minority, Billotte said.

The issue of security and access to the names of public officials on the real estate Web site has been raised since before the Web site was launched with a search function for names more than four years ago. The argument ended then in favor of public access.

However, the recent violence aimed at the judiciary has changed the debate, Ambrose said.

"There is an issue, but I just think in these times you just have to weigh [public access] in light of security issues," Ambrose said.

County Manager Jim Flynn said the purpose of the real estate Web site is to provide property assessment information, not to help the public search for the properties of individuals.

In all, the names of about 100 judges have been removed. They includes judges from U.S. District and Bankruptcy courts, Common Pleas, Commonwealth and Superior courts, as well Supreme Court justices and magisterial district judges.

Next on the list to be removed could be the names of hundreds of law enforcement officers, Flynn said. The county has received a request from McCandless police Chief Gary Anderson, president of the Allegheny County Chiefs of Police Association, to consider the removal of the names of police officers.

Onorato is considering the request, Flynn said.