The Safe Library - Service, Safety, & Security with Dr. Steve Albrecht

By Dr. Steve Albrecht

When I started my library security training journey back in 2000, my knowledge of what went on in libraries as an operation was limited, and my understanding of what happened in libraries regarding crime, violence, and patron behavioral issues wasn’t much more. I was grateful that my first primary training client sent me on a field trip of sorts, starting out at libraries in Northern California, into the Bay Area, and finishing in Southern California, Los Angeles, and ending in my then-home city, San Diego.

I talked to library staff, library directors, managers, supervisors, PICs, Friends of the Library bookstore volunteers, security guards, library board members, and when possible, the local cops. Each of these gave me my first education as to the challenges library leaders and employees faced.

I taught my security workshops in Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles, and San Diego. I presented at city and county libraries and law libraries, in downtown, urban, and suburban locations.

I have lived in the Midwest for seven years now, but I keep in close touch with my parents in San Diego and still have a lot of friends there too. Library security news follows me everywhere and I see the same stories that perhaps you do: crime and violence problems at the main branch of the Oakland library; fentanyl drug overdoses around the San Francisco Civic Center library; the temporary closure of the Long Beach main library due to harassment of staff; the one-day closure of the Antioch (CA) Library due to staff fears about on-going crimes, vandalism, and violence; security issues at Los Angeles city and county libraries; a homicide shooting in front of the San Diego downtown library.

It’s hard to look at this list of issues in our most populous state in the county and conclude California is at the forefront of library safety and security, for its staff, facilities, and patrons. The safety of library staff is now a significant issue with the employee unions

Here are five primary reasons for this growing trend of crime and behavior problems in and around California libraries:

1). Most homeless people in the United States are in California.

The number seems to be around 150,000 people. The weather makes life on the streets somewhat easier (if that’s even possible) in January in Los Angeles when compared to Chicago.

Some cities, with San Francisco as the most visible example, pay some homeless people a stipend of $500 to $750 per month.

Libraries have always attracted homeless patrons, most of whom want to be there and don’t cause problems. The small number who are chronically mentally ill and drug/alcohol addicted create the most incidents and that makes many occasional patrons feel like “the homeless ruin the library experience for me,” even though that is not the real truth.

2). The explosion of fentanyl.

This drug makes the prevalence of crack cocaine back in the 80s and 90s look like breakfast cereal. It’s cheap to make, easy to smuggle into the US from China and Mexico, and cheap to buy -- unfortunately making it very profitable. Fentanyl is so prevalent it is now laced into marijuana joints, cocaine, opiate pills, Ecstasy/Molly/MDMA pills, and even street-sold Ritalin or Adderall pills. Almost every street drug used today is contaminated with fentanyl. Drug overdoses kill over 100,000 people each year and are now the leading cause of death for 18 to 45-year-olds.

Back twenty years ago, it would be quite unusual to find the overdose recovery drug Narcan in a library, let alone have staff trained to use it. Now, you can get Narcan over the corner at a pharmacy and some libraries have used it to save lives before paramedics could get there.

3). The passage of California Proposition 47 in 2014.

Over the last ten years, there have been significant changes in how crimes are classified, arrested for, and prosecuted in the Golden State. This ballot issue was designed to ease jail and prison overcrowding, “put more cops on the street fighting real crime,” and ease the burdens on our criminal court system. What it did was de-criminalize a lot of crimes that used to be arrestable offenses, like retail store petty theft, drug possession, and even physical assaults.

As one example, possession of illegal drugs used to be a felony, and being under the influence of illegal drugs was a misdemeanor. Now drug possession is a misdemeanor and being under the influence is an infraction, the equivalent of a speeding ticket.

Grand theft in California used to be a felony crime. It’s now considered to be a misdemeanor, even for the stealing of most items over the previous dollar amount of $950.

Jail and prison overcrowding was influenced by “three strikes” laws. Many of those have been reduced and California has even closed some state prisons. This means more previously violent people who were in prison than are not now.

All this means less enforcement by police overall, including either no response or an hours or even days-late response for low-level crimes that happen in or near the library.

4). Not enough police or security officers to cover crimes and threatening behavior problems in libraries.

To safeguard its 72 branches, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Security Services Division (SECSD) provides uniformed police officers, unarmed security officers who are city employees, and contract private security officers. (The LA Public Library pays LAPD $4.5 million for their security services.)

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office provides uniformed deputies to provide security to LA County’s 86 library branches. (I was told there 8 to 10 deputies, who must cover 3,024 square miles. I’m not a math whiz, but this is not a great ratio.)

There are not enough police officers and sheriff’s deputies in this country to respond even to emergency calls, let alone minor behavior-based crimes. In California, police staffing is way down, for a variety of reasons, including the high cost of housing in the largest cities (the median house price in my former home-city San Diego is $970,000). Also, not many people want to apply to do that job anymore, because: it’s dangerous (a cop is shot in the US every 27 hours); not very popular (if you want to be admired, become a firefighter); and not always well-paid.

5). Apathy about library safety and security by political leaders.

It’s not that many elected or appointed officials in California don’t care about libraries or library employees, it’s just that they don’t care as much about what happens in or around the library unless there is a significant negative event. Just like they don’t always pay attention to what happens at the local Parks and Recreation facility unless there is a problem. Politicians are driven by events, by bad optics that reflect poorly on themselves and their governing bodies, by what gets expanded and continuing media attention, and by what triggers a lot of voters to call their offices and complain.

What does all this mean, if you work in a library in California or any other state?

• Keep on doing your job, focusing on your personal and collective safety every day as you do.
• Use Security Incident Reports as leverage to get better police responses, policy changes, and equipment improvements.
• Keep the library involved as much as possible in discussions with electeds.
• Use your Library Boards and employee unions/associations to educate the politicians as to what is really happening in your branches.