Library directed to justify bag searches, weapon screening

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This article was published 04/04/2019 (2604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Councillors want the city’s library management team to provide details on what prompted the installation of metal detectors and to do bag checks of visitors entering the downtown Millennium Library.

Opponents of the new security system left city hall disappointed Thursday but still hopeful the measures will be removed.

Councillors on the community services committee also directed management to show how other cities deal with similar security concerns at their libraries and to propose alternatives.

The administration was directed to provide the committee with a verbal report in 60 days and a written report in 120 days.

Coun. Sherri Rollins, chairwoman of the committee, said a report from library management should have been provided to the committee before the new measures were imposed, but she accepted management had legitimate reasons for implementing them even if politicians weren’t informed ahead of time.

“Thoughtful consultation and engagement with other public services that face some of the same issues are things that I absolutely expect,” Rollins said, noting she only learned about the security moves in mid-February the day a news release was sent out.

Representatives from the newly formed advocacy group, Millennium For All, said councillors will be told Winnipeg is the only major city in the country that has implemented what they said are harsh and unnecessary security measures at a main library branch.

“I’m pleased the committee will be holding library management accountable. It falls short on the request that the security be removed,” said Graeme Young, one of two people who came to the committee to ask councillors to rescind the security measures.

The new system subjects all visitors aged 13 years and older to metal detector sweeps and bag checks. It was announced on Feb. 15 and implemented 10 days later. While there was some support for the move among library visitors, many others said it was unnecessary, targeted the poor and the homeless, would not achieve the desired ends, and added a burdensome delay to the library entrance.

A “read in” demonstration was organized Tuesday night at the branch, where hundreds of people urged city hall to allow scrap the policy.

When the moves were announced, Ed Cuddy, manager of library services, told reporters the security measures were necessary to deal with an increasing number of incidents; however, he acknowledged that at no time was the safety of library staff ever jeopardized and he wouldn’t elaborate on the type or number of incidents that had been occurring.

Safety concerns were never brought to the attention of city council or the community services committee, Cuddy admitted.

The implementation of the new policy came out of nowhere, said Coun. Ross Eadie, adding library management had to have been considering the move since at least the fall.

“We never heard anything at this committee and the next thing you know we’re installing metal detectors,” he said, calling the new system “drastic” and questioning whether its implementation was prompted in part by a drop in library attendance.

Attendance numbers had nothing to do it with, Cuddy said.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca