By Dr. Steve Albrecht

In Part One of the Perils of the Parking Lot, I provided an (overly) long list of possible problems created by possible problem people in the exterior areas where patrons park. (That’s a lot of p-words in one sentence.) Some readers were kind enough to contact Steve Hargadon at Library 2.0 and say they had similar issues in their parking lots and were looking forward to my advice as to some solutions. Several librarians said that the security of their parking lots is made more difficult by the challenges of reduced staffing from Covid and because they are only providing curb service now, so a library employee must stand outside, alone, with no security officers, amongst whoever walks or drives by or may be there to pick up or drop off books.

Reviewing my list from the previous blog, most of the issues I mentioned are either crimes in progress or could become crimes. Others relate to less-than-ideal behavior from people with behavioral issues and who may not be the best rule-followers in the whole wide sweet world. Some safety and security concerns can’t be fixed easily or inexpensively - installing new lights, exterior cameras, hiring security officers, and re-paving and re-striping the parking lot can get costly.

It’s important to prioritize any parking lot safety and security improvements based on two issues: likelihood and liability. Misunderstanding or minimizing both can create your pathway to a civil courtroom. Despite what some plaintiff’s attorneys will tell juries about people who work for government agencies, we aren’t expected to be able to predict the future, anticipate crimes, or see accidents before they happen. But if we have prior notice of past crimes or accidents, or our list of Security Incident Reports is piled high with parking lot problems, then we can get hammered in court for that classic legal doctrine, “you knew or should have known this bad thing was about to happen to my client.” 

Our defense of “We didn’t have the money in the budget to make security lighting or camera improvements or fix the giant sinkhole in the parking lot before it swallowed up 16 cars” will fall upon the deaf ears of a judge or jury. They will have expected you to take “reasonable steps, that a reasonable library, would need to do to mitigate serious risks once they came to your attention.” In other words, spend your dollars wisely in the beginning (repairs, new policies, and security equipment) so they don’t get wasted at the end (civil case settlements and legal fees).    

It may help to think of those issues which are criminal or potentially criminal in nature as one category and then consider others that may require a design fix, like permanently blocking off one of the many entrances to your parking lot to improve the traffic flow. Still others may require some outside the box (OTB) thinking, so I will note when it’s time for some OTB considerations below.

Two other suggestions: get help from your safety and security stakeholders who also work for your same city/county (Facilities, Maintenance, Public Works, law enforcement, fire, risk management) and borrow/steal good ideas from other libraries who have tamed their parking lots.

Pay attention to the traffic flow in the parking lot. Note where drivers pick up and drop-off people or kids, especially if it’s not where it’s designated. Be certain the directional signage, painted arrows, and red curbs versus loading zone curbs are visible. Juries love to pay high-dollar amounts in so-called “darting kid” cases, where a child is injured or killed even though he or she ran out from behind two parked cars. Some parking lot designs make this unlikely and others are more dangerous, with blindspots, frequent speeders, or proximity to an elementary school. 

Consider installing speed bumps if drivers use your parking lot like a race track. These can be especially useful if drivers cut through your parking lot to get to another nearby building, an adjacent parking lot, or use it as a shortcut to a major street. 

Install bollards or concrete planter boxes in front of your entrance doors or pedestrian access points.  If you need to justify the cost, just Google how many inattentive, elderly, or teenaged drivers mistook the gas pedal for the brake and crashed their cars into the local Starbucks, convenience store, garage, or house. These barriers can prevent people from driving on to your grass, sidewalks, driveways, or into the rear of the building or your loading dock area.   

You don’t need an expensive exterior camera system, but in these trying times, you do need an exterior cameras system. I get it; banks have cameras and they still get robbed. Cameras don’t prevent crime, they deter it, especially if you post signs in the parking lot that remind everyone who uses the lot that you have cameras watching what they’re doing. At a minimum, your first, best exterior camera should be installed over your main entrance doorway, to see who is entering the library. Other exterior camera views should cover the parking lot and get recorded to a Network Video Recorder (or NVR, to the Cloud). Having any exterior cameras in your parking lot will require an investment in both quality devices and sufficient lighting. You need cameras that can capture nighttime problems too. (Never install fake cameras as a cost-saving measure, anywhere inside or outside the library. We can be liable if someone gets injured and had an expectation that his or her assault was captured on a real camera.) 

Improve your signage. You will need a variety of so-called “bailment” signs (“Park At Your Own Risk,” “We Are Not Responsible for Theft or Damage”) to put people on notice, that say other things like, “No overnight parking or day/night camping”; “Take all valuables with you, bring your keys, lock your car”; “This area monitored by security cameras” (if that’s true).

Get your security officers outside. They need to leave the library on an irregular schedule (not at the top of each hour, but in a regular, vigilant, but unpredictable way). They can do their security patrols on foot, by car, and golf cart.

Meet with your Police Department or Sheriff’s Office. Ask them to do more drive-bys through the parking lot at different times, even when the library is closed; have them do their reports in the parking lot; exercise their K9s at the nearby park or on the nearby grass if there is any; and focus on the small number of people who may be causing the biggest collection of problems. (When they do this it’s called “Problem-Oriented Policing” - or doing POP projects.) 

Talk to your PD/Sheriff’s civilian Parking Enforcement Unit. They may need to drive through your lot on a more regular basis if you are having lots of issues with drivers parking in handicapped stalls without the proper placards or plates, parking in red zone/fire lanes, and blocking loading doors. (Make certain the stalls and curbs are newly painted and have the right signs in place; no need to irritate patrons who get expensive tickets they didn’t deserve because it’s not fully clear what is legal or illegal parking.) The fearless Parking Ticket Squad can also mark possibly abandoned cars for a 72-hour violation, or verify stolen or stripped cars and tow them away. 

Improve the exterior lighting. Talk with your Director of Facilities or Maintenance about getting brighter, more efficient lights in your lot. Some parking lots still use old-school low sodium lights instead of LED lights. LEDs are far superior to the low sodium parking lot lights that many cities and counties installed several decades ago. The low sodium lights are expensive, hazardous when broken, and don’t show actual colors of objects at night with any clarity. Have your Shops people give you (exciting) lessons on the differences between Lumens and Candlepower.

Review Security Incident Reports from the past year. Look for the two things civil suit attorneys love to focus on as a weakness in our security responses: “patterns and practices.” This means events that have become a pattern (happening too much) and failed practices (we did not respond or take adequate measures to solve the problem).

Reward employee vigilance and reporting. Remind all library employees to pay careful attention to what they see as they cross the parking lot. Tell them to watch how and where they come and go to the building before and after work and on their meal breaks. Give your employees an Amazon card every time they report serious safety or crime problems in the parking lot. They see things directors, managers, and supervisors may not see. Praise them for being watchful. The injury or incident they may prevent affects the safety of everybody. Money we don’t have to spend on legal claims can be put to good use in the library. 

Remind your Public Works landscapers or groundskeeping vendors about security vigilance. Tell them to keep all bushes and trees trimmed away from buildings and lights, so as not to provide hiding places or block the view from the street or inside the building. Tell them to report any vandalism or theft related to sprinkler parts, water spigots, or gas/electrical/telephone utility boxes.

Tell your Maintenance staff to keep the area clean. This may involve them having to pick up broken needles, syringe parts, human waste, and other bloodborne pathogens, so they need to be trained in how to collect and safely dispose of these items. Make certain they are doing their snow removal and sidewalk salting during winter. Have them fix potholes that can damage cars and any concrete or asphalt-related pedestrian trip hazards.

OTB Suggestion: Make friends with your (most sober, reasonable, cooperative) Streetwise Frequent Fliers, who hang around the interiors and exteriors of your library. Ask them to self-police themselves and to help keep the peace in and around “our library.” Sometimes street people can speak the necessary language to other street people in ways where the peer pressure can support your efforts to keep everyone safe, without needing to involve Security or the Police.  

OTB Suggestion: If you have overnight sleepers or loiterers who won’t leave (and the police can’t or won’t help), what about doing what convenience stores and gas stations do and play loud classical music through speakers mounted on poles outside? 

OTB Suggestion: Consider installing parking lot gates and lock the gate at the end of the night? This is a big step and it may require discussions, approvals, signage, new policies about cars left inside overnight, legal opinions, and even public comment. You’ll also need someone to unlock and lock the gates, seven days a week. This should be done by employees from your Public Works, Parks Department, Maintenance Department, or your security guards, not by your library employees.

If you have a large parking lot to secure or your library is adjacent to a multi-story parking garage, these can present additional security challenges that I will address in a future Library 2.0 column (probably called The Perils of the Parking Lot: Part 3 because I don’t have much imagination).

By Dr. Steve Albrecht

On February 18, 2020, two 13-year-old boys allegedly lit a fire in the Children's Section on the top floor of the two-story Porterville, CA library. They fled, as did the other patrons and staff in the building, who all got out safely. Unfortunately, two Porterville Firefighters, Patrick Jones, 25, and Raymond Figueroa, 35, died while fighting the blaze. The two teenagers, who were released in August 2020 to home confinement, face charges of conspiracy, murder, and arson that could put them in the California Youth Authority until they are 25. The library housed 77,000 books and was built in 1953; it did not have fire sprinklers.

According to a story in the February 19, 2020 edition of The Sacramento Bee: "For two decades, the city of Porterville discussed the need to upgrade its 67-year-old library where two firefighters were killed Tuesday. The structure was so old it lacked the fire sprinklers required in modern buildings and had numerous other structural problems, according to city officials.

"A library assessment commissioned by the Porterville City Council in 2008 said that the building whose original floor was built in 1953 'is in relatively good shape,' but several repairs including a fire-reporting system 'must be addressed.' The report recommended a smoke alarm system directly linked to the fire department central station."

"With the renovation, a fire-safety upgrade is required," the report says. "A smoke alarm system with central station reporting is a good inexpensive solution. Its estimated cost is $25,000.'"

"It's not clear if any of the fire alarm upgrades were made following the 2008 report."

"The library is so close to a fire station that the risks seemed minimal, said Edith La Vonne, the chairwoman of the Porterville Library and Literacy Commission. The back wall of the library butts up against Fire Station 1," La Vonne said. "They're just around the corner, so for me the proximity to the fire department ... I happen to know they're extremely efficient. They're good. They're well trained and so a fire never occurred to me."

"The 2008 report noted other problems with the library building. Water had damaged the roof in the northeastern corner and the building's foundation was sinking in places due to being built on poor soil. "Electrical service is maxed out and requires an upgrade," the report said. "The suspended ceiling is not braced for earthquakes."

"The original 3,824-square-foot building constructed in 1953 was expanded in 1974 to two stories, adding 6,100 square feet to the library, according to the 2008 report.”

(https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article240433646.html#storylink=cpy)

This tragic story should remind all library leaders and all library employees about our collective need to pay careful attention to a fire as a rare but catastrophic event (like the rare possibility of an active shooter in the library). We need to have written and practiced plans in place and still prepare for an unlikely occurrence. The likelihood of a library fire can be estimated on many factors: staff vigilance about not allowing smoking or watching for signs of arson (especially possible from mentally ill patrons or children); the age of your facility (newly-constructed buildings are much less likely to catch fire or burn); the installation or absence of water sprinklers, smoke, and heat sensors; a building-wide fire alarm system with audible alarms and a public address system to be used to notify all staff and patrons to evacuate; and the proximity of the fire department and its number of staff. 

This last issue is the most surprising to people. According to a 2014 report from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), about 70 percent of America's firefighters are volunteers, and 85 percent of the nation's fire departments are all or mostly volunteer. The smallest communities — those with fewer than 10,000 residents — are almost always served by volunteer departments (https://bit.ly/38cfWbL). The majority of fire stations in the US are staffed by a full-time, paid Fire Chief, one to three Assistant or Battalion Chiefs, and the rest is made up of volunteer firefighters. For rural libraries, there may be a substantial distance and delayed response time by an all-volunteer Fire Department.

As library leaders consider the vexing issue of a building fire, they should discuss and verify:

• The marked location of evacuation routes, for patrons in the front and employees in the rear.
• Moving children, elderly, or disabled patrons out of the building, quickly and safely.
• Having more than one fire drill per year (follow our K-12 schools, who do several).
• Being vigilant of any hazardous materials (hazmat) in storage areas, janitorial closets, kitchens or break rooms.  
• Keeping all gas, electrical, utility, and IT Server rooms secured.
• Being aware of any potential chemicals or flammables on site.
• Constant awareness of children or teenagers playing with lighters or matches.
• Reporting any arson threats or attempted arson by disturbed or disgruntled patrons to the police. 
• Vigilance by staff to enforce "No smoking" by patrons (cigarettes, pipes, cigars, and vape pens).

For professional advice on this issue, I consulted with my colleague, Robert May, JD. Bob is not only an attorney but also a former Fire Chief for two southern California agencies. He teaches fire leadership and emergency operations management for various fire administrations in the state of California. He is the CEO of Mainstream Unlimited, a firm that specializes in risk management consulting, onsite training, webinars, and site security assessments. He can be reached at www.MainstreamUnlimited.com.   

Here are Chief May's thoughts on keeping libraries safe from fires:

"Libraries can pose a challenge when it comes to fire and life safety. The buildings are potentially high-occupancy facilities with hidden dangers. Employees and visitor safety are critical. Besides the life safety exposures, the building can house irreplaceable books, priceless valuables, and historical artifacts. It's not uncommon when a library is involved in a fire for the damage to be significant. These buildings pose a high risk to the entity that owns and operates the building, which could be a city or county, a landlord, or a property manager. All libraries must be outfitted to prevent or reduce damage and allow the safe evacuation of employees and patrons."

"The first step is to determine the high-risk areas of the building. This would include areas where: 

• Exhibits featuring highly combustible materials like paper, wood, or textiles.
• Exhibits featuring preserved specimens housed in alcohol or other flammable liquids.
• Tightly-packed rooms with exhibits or bookshelves.
• Rooms housing materials easily damaged by smoke, soot, or water.

An important factor in preventing a fire loss is through the maintenance of a good fire prevention program. The fire protection program and accompanying policies need to be in writing and updated periodically. 

Management and staff responsibilities need to be defined, and fire prevention procedures need to be established. This program must be based on a high standard of janitorial services, housekeeping, orderliness, maintenance of equipment, and continuous staff training and awareness in both recognizing and eliminating fire hazards (ignition and fuel sources).

To help in the reduction of these exposures a fire protection plan is needed. A fire protection plan should have these goals in mind:

• Preserve documents, data, artifacts, exhibits, and equipment.
• Reduce smoke and soot contamination.
• Reduce water damage caused by onsite protection or fire hoses.
• Have a safety plan for the evacuation of staff and visitors.

"More important than the preservation of the archive and library and its collections is, of course, the safeguarding the lives of its staff and patrons. Life safety must always come first. Library management must ensure that employees know what to do in the event of a fire."

• Make sure they know what the building fire alarm sounds like (bells, horns, chimes, speakers with recorded instructions). Fire drills should be conducted at least twice a year.
• Ensure employees can hear the alarm. Extend alarms to locations where the alarm cannot be heard and make provisions in the interim to alert employees in those areas.
• Ensure all employees know their primary and secondary exit routes. Every archive and library should have an evacuation plan and provide it to all employees. Walk through exit routes to make sure they are clear and available for use. Conditions may change daily due to construction, renovations, repairs, etc.
• Egress paths are not obstructed by storage, etc.
• Exit doors are accessible, unlocked, and not blocked from the other side.
• Exit signs are operating and visible.
• Emergency lights are functional and adequate to illuminate the exit paths in case of a power failure.
• Staff knows where the meeting point is outside the building so they can be accounted for.
• An introduction to fire prevention is given to all new employees.

Chief May concludes by saying, "No library institution is immune from fire. Library leaders need to ensure they develop plans for dealing with the fire threat. If they do not do it, it places the building and its occupants, visitors, and collections at risk."

Your best ally in the process of keeping your library safe is your local Fire Department. Call the Fire Chief and/or the Fire Marshal to set up a meeting and ask for a full inspection of your building. Follow the recommendations – equipment, policies, training, drills – of your fire professionals. 

By Dr. Steve Albrecht

Normal people either park their cars in the library parking lot or pass through it walking on their way to the building. Scary people use the library parking lot for more dangerous, illegal, or threatening reasons.

As the operators of the library building, we also have an extended legal duty to care for the appearance and safety of the parking lot and must pay attention to what goes on there. That doesn't mean you have to move your desk to the parking lot and sit watching what happens, but since the parking lot is the place where our "invitees" (our patrons, customers, vendors, and visitors) make their access to our building, we can't ignore what goes on out there.

There is a concept in the law known as "foreseeability" and while I'm not a lawyer and I'm not here to give you legal advice, the definition is important to us. Foreseeability means "a reasonable anticipation of the possible results of an action, such as what may happen if one is negligent."

In civil cases, this often means you "knew or should have known" something bad, dangerous, or injurious could happen or will happen. Yes, this means we have to be able to predict the future, especially if one or more accidents or incidents would lead a "reasonable person" (and that phrase pops up a lot in court) to believe a crime or an accident could, would, or did happen based on the conditions in the area.

In other words, if there have been a lot of robberies in your library parking lot over several years and a patron is robbed and injured, he or she can sue us (often successfully) by saying we had prior notice of these dangerous events going on and we did nothing to mitigate that risk.

Mitigating the risk of a robbery would mean we have regular patrols by our security officers and local police; we would install bright exterior lights, signs, and cameras.

Of course, installing those anti-robbery measures will not guarantee a parking lot robbery won't happen, but it makes our position much easier to defend in civil court if it does. This goes back to the theme that we recognized problems, took the best steps we could to prevent them, and try to run our business operations by minimizing the likelihood that they could occur.

So that said, what impression do you get when you drive in and park and walk to the building, especially if you were a first-time visitor to the parking lot? Does it feel safe, inviting, clean, where a crime is highly unlikely based on the design and who uses the space? Or does it feel unsafe, dark, dirty, and the area has a history of criminal activity attached to it?

One way to know what is going on in your neighborhood is to do an online search for crimes in your neighborhood, or if your Police or Sheriff's Department has a Crime Prevention Unit, the civilian staff can provide crime history reports for your specific address in particular and for your zip code in general. The results - ranging from "We're doing well here" to "Uh oh" - may surprise you.

The list of potential parking lot safety and security issues is surprisingly long (but not to me, who has seen all of these things outside the library windows):

• car break-ins
• car thefts
• car vandalism
• gasoline thefts
• building vandalism
• drunks and drug-users hanging around
• drug sales
• drug overdoses
• medical emergencies
• loud music from loiterers or cars with the windows down
• littering, trash, broken bottles, used syringes, graffiti on the asphalt, fences, windows, and buildings
• robberies and muggings
• sex crimes, sexual assaults, indecent exposure
• using the parking lot as a public bathroom
• carjackings
• assaults, fights
• noisy arguments and long-running disputes
• gang activity, fights with rival gangs
• teenagers harassing patrons and bullying other kids
• drive-by or run-by purse snatchings
• loitering and congregating to intimidate patrons from using the library
• domestic violence-related fights, assaults
• child-custody disputes during court-ordered dropoffs
• hit and run drivers
• car accidents
• car vs pedestrian accidents
• theft of water or electricity from the library
• theft of sprinkler heads, copper pipe, or copper wire
• sleeping in cars during the day and camping overnight
• trespassing through the lot after being banned from the library
• crime casers, preparing to do something

Whew!

That is a long list of potential problems. A small number of these issues can be addressed with the right signage, lighting, cameras, and employee vigilance. Most of them will need to be handled by library security officers (if you have them), working with the local police or sheriff. Your local officers or deputies should certainly be proactive to address a lot of these behaviors before they turn into crimes. The aftermath of the crimes will require a law enforcement response.

In Part 2 of this discussion, I'll talk about the best, safest, and most cost-effective ways we can address this list of possible or potential parking lot perils.

By Dr. Steve Albrecht.

When I teach my workplace violence prevention program for my range of public or private-sector clients, one of the things we discuss is the value and importance of paying better attention to who comes into our buildings and why. If real estate is all about location, location, location, then keeping employees safe at work is all about access control, access control, access control.

One of the examples I use in training to illustrate how things aren't always what they seem when it comes to vendors is a slide featuring a photo of a brown UPS uniform shirt, pants, and socks. The group identifies the uniform as belonging to and worn by every UPS driver they've ever seen. I then tell them I took that picture because I bought that same uniform at a thrift store. The training participants are quite surprised to hear there is no national restriction on buying any kind of uniform. You can buy medical scrubs, military camos, and even patches for a police uniform.

I complicate the UPS uniform scenario even more by asking, "Do you think I could wear this uniform and walk into almost any business pushing a hand truck and breeze right past the receptionist or security guard? Could I get into almost any business dressed this way and no one would ever think to ask me to show my UPS employee ID card? Have you ever even seen a UPS driver wearing an ID card? I've seen FedEx drivers wearing them around their necks, but I can't recall ever having seen a UPS ID."

One of my gym partners works as a UPS driver and he has no specific route. Because he has only been with them for a few years, he doesn't have much seniority and still works as a relief driver. That means he covers for other drivers who are on vacation or sick. He drives a different route nearly every day or the same one for only a week or two at a time. I asked him, since he is not the usual driver for businesses who are used to seeing their same driver nearly every day, does anyone ever ask him to identify himself? No, not once ever, he says. Everyone just waves and goes about their business as he goes about his. He rolls his hand truck into their back rooms and does his pick up and delivery thing.

Could someone wearing an "official-looking uniform" walk into your library, go back into the employees-only area, and gain access to expensive, valuable, financial, proprietary, or protected items? As a Security Guy, this is the kind of thing that keeps me up all night, worrying.

There are certain people we invite to use the public entrance side of our library, mainly patrons. Certain people also use the private entrance side of our library, mainly employees. Then there are those who we permit to come from the public side to the private side. This includes regular vendors - book deliveries, copy machine repairs, the good folks who refill the soda and snack machines in our break room, FedEx/UPS drivers, janitorial services, and the like. We may have irregular vendors, like maintenance or repair workers, plumbers, electricians, carpet cleaners, etc. And we may have visitors who are employees of our city or county, if we are connected to a city or town and not an independent, stand-alone library system. This could include everyone from Public Works employees, Facilities employees, IT employees, couriers from our Finance Office, and regularly-scheduled delivery people who work for the same entity as we do.

We could have visits from elected or appointed officials from our own community or neighboring cities or towns; our city attorneys, county counsels, town attorneys, district attorneys, and similar legal people; and we could have visitors from our Friends of the Library or Library Board members.

On the public side, it's quite common for Library Directors or their deputies or department heads to have meetings with patrons. Most of these meetings are cordial and problem-free; some are hostile and volatile, based on the high degree of emotionality the patron brings into the meeting room. During one of these confrontational meetings, where the patron starts shouting and won't lower his or her voice or end the meeting and leave the room, I'm certain every director has had that sinking feeling inside where he or she thinks, "I should have met this person out in the library, not here on the second floor, way back in the back of the building, where what's happening in my office right now is not heard by anyone."

All this speaks to the need for a Vendor/Visitor Control Policy. We don't need to have every person sign a Visitor Log, but we do need to quickly and effectively screen everyone who comes in wanting to do work, have a meeting, or otherwise go "behind the curtain," from the frontstage part of our business and building to the backstage parts.

Here are our Vendor/Visitor Rules of Thumb:

• Ask all City/County employees (including all library employees) to wear their visible photo ID while inside your building. This helps to tell employees and patrons who is who.
• All regular delivery people need to be acknowledged and recognized by at least one library employee, who knows them from frequent contact and can send them into the back. In other words, someone should quickly vouch for them with a hello or a head nod. No vendor should breeze right past and go into our back areas without being seen by at least one library employee.
• No one-time vendors or vendors who come to the facility on an irregular basis should be allowed to enter the back offices or be left alone in those areas without an employee escort. If they need to wait before they can do their work, ask them to wait on the public side of the facility. (Some "salespeople" are not always who they seem, so better safe than sorry.)
• Any visitors - including other City/County employees, patrons, elected/appointed officials - should be asked, in a polite and matter of fact way, to sign our Visitors Clipboard. This clipboard should include their name, title, the person they want to see, and when they arrived and left. Since it has been nearly 20 years since the 9-11 attacks, this should not be a burden to most people, since it is done routinely at many other professional and governmental buildings.
• All visitors need to be walked back to inner office appointments by a reception staff member, library staffer, or met at the transition door (between our public side and our private side) by the person who has the appointment with them.
• Train and remind all library staffers not to bring angry or unstable patrons back to meet with senior leaders. Have them either call the back office to have the supervisors, managers, deputies or assistant directors, or director come out and meet the person, or preferably, to set an appointment to meet the next day. Time heals a lot of anger and the patron who is irrational and unreasonable today might be much more agreeable 24 hours from now.
• Staff members should brief their bosses as to the issue that the patron wants to meet about and give an assessment of his or her levels of anger and cooperation. Any concerns about volatility, now or the next day, should mean that the library leader meets with the patron on the public side of the library and not in his or her office, or even only over the phone.
• When meeting with really angry patrons, have a colleague participate in the meeting as well, for "safety in numbers" reasons, and to witness the discussion.
• The time to think about creating or updating your Vendor/Visitor Policy is before you have an incident that tells you what you should have done.

By Dr. Steve Albrecht

Of all the tough topics on the library table today, few carry more weight than the relationship between your facility and when, how, or even if law enforcement officers should respond to issues, events, or problems inside. On the news and on social media, only the choice for president and race relations get more discussion and the role and duties of the police in our communities play a part in each of those conversations as well.  

We need to create a new way forward, to build a different relationship with law enforcement, and ask them to provide trustworthy, fair, ethical, and safe services to our staff, patrons, and citizens.

Last month, I presented a Library 2.0 webinar on the changing nature of the police response to libraries. I talked about my background in law enforcement, my security consulting and training for libraries, the police culture (especially as it relates to their fears of being killed on the job), and some ways libraries can use other resources instead of calling the police for security problems inside or around the buildings. It was intended to be the start of a longer conversation that will have to take place between libraries and law enforcement (not just library people and me). I’m not the provider of all the answers, only the conversation starter. My intention was to give the webinar participants the backdrop on the police culture, so they could speak with their cops and understand why they think and act as they do.

What follows is two lists – one where your library will still need a response by police officers or sheriff’s deputies – even if you have armed or unarmed security officers in your library – and one where it’s probably not necessary to call the police. Your customization of both lists will be required, as you think and go forward on this issue. 

Situations at the Library Where You Will Need a Police Response

An active shooter, mass murder, mass attack event.

A person armed with a deadly weapon, threatening or robbing others.

A fight between two armed patrons.

The sexual assault of a patron, child, or employee.

The attempted or actual kidnapping of a child or an adult.

Finding a gun or a large quantity of drugs in the library.

A violent confrontation between rival gang members.

A domestic violence incident, with injuries.

A hostage or barricaded subject situation, which will become a SWAT call.

Person(s) trying to steal expensive items or equipment from the library or patrons.

Violent crimes happening in the parking lot.

A bomb threat? (Only if you find a suspicious device.)

Indecent exposure by a patron; a patron in possession of child pornography.

Violation of Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), for a banned patron or a fearful patron or an employee with a domestic violence issue.

Situations Where You Might Not Need a Police Response

Petty theft of library or a patron’s property. (The police may not respond anyway, due to staffing shortages. It may only become a telephone report response.)

Mentally ill or drunk/on drugs patron. (Staff uses Dr. Steve Albrecht’s many high-stress communication tools, plus their own experience and training to get the person to cooperate and leave.) 

Patrons arguing with each other. (Same as above.)

A loud, eccentric, rude, disturbing patron. (Same as above, above.)

A drug overdose event. (Paramedics will be needed, not cops.)

A crime case where the victim says he or she will not cooperate with them. (Sometimes people handle things their own ways.)

A small quantity of found marijuana, drug paraphernalia, or needles. (Have trained library staff or maintenance staff wear safety equipment and safely dispose of this stuff.) 

Vicious dog? (Call Animal Control.)

Students fighting (no injuries); truancy issues; child abuse (Call CPS / APS directly to report).

Patron gets property stolen or car hit. (They can call the police and meet them outside if they want.)

Next Steps

These two lists are not complete, of course. You and your library leaders and staffers may have many other thoughts as to when the police are needed and when they aren’t. Sometimes the arrival of the police makes things instantly better: by lowering the emotional temperature; preserving the peace; calming the angry or hysterical; or enforcing consequences that solve the problem and prevent a reoccurrence. Sometimes the police show up and make things instantly worse: using physical force too soon, wrongly, or ineffectively; scaring or embarrassing people into acting irrationally; or just not having the proper training, experience, and wisdom about how to best encounter, manage, and help people who are not being their best.      

We need a new way forward. We will always need the police, but not always. We need to use other resources and call the police when there are clear signs of impending danger, violence, or injury. Your best next steps are these: 

• Determine your new criteria for a police response to your libraries. This will need to happen on a branch-by-branch basis. Based on the number and type of security incident reports, some libraries will have more safety issues that may require a more frequent police response than others.
  
  
• Discuss the current and expected police responses with your leadership team and employees, to get their feedback. Weigh the current realities you face in each branch, without getting caught up in the emotionality of this issue. Stick to the data. Create a balanced sense of agreement with your staff as to when to call the police and when to use other resources.
  
  
• Develop other resources related to security interventions, how to help patrons facing, mental health, drug/alcohol, and homelessness issues, and Think Outside the Box as you do.
  
  
• Meet with the leadership (preferably lieutenants and above) of your primary law enforcement agency – City Police Department or County Sheriff’s Office – and discuss your needs and their services. Create better boundaries for their responses and hear what they plan to do differently on your behalf.