City should open book on library-security rationale

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/03/2019 (2373 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Public libraries have long been much more than places that house books. They have become community hubs — not just peaceful spots to read or study, not just repositories of knowledge and art, but safe spaces for vulnerable citizens, havens for homeless people to escape the elements.

Libraries require no membership and charge no entry fee. They demand nothing of their users beyond a modicum of civility.

So when a library institutes a bag-search policy and starts subjecting patrons to a hand-held metal detector, you don’t have to read between the lines to know there’s a big problem.

We expect our libraries to have an open-door policy, but we also want them to be welcoming spaces where neither users nor employees need be afraid. So it’s hard to understand why Winnipeg Public Library officials won’t come clean about the degree of dangerous behaviour that must have been occurring at the Millennium Library for the city to take such an extraordinary and divisive measure.

Many patrons claim to have felt entirely safe at Millennium and never to have witnessed any issues, but perceptions are not data; some of the backlash against the draconian security measures could have been averted if the public had been made aware why they were necessary.

However, beyond a general statement from Ed Cuddy, the manager of library services, who said, “The number of incidents (has) increased in the past four to five years, incidences involving violence, threats, alcohol, substance abuse…,” the public has been given no exact statistics, nor examples of specific instances of violence, that might justify such an invasive and unprecedented move.

One could hazard a guess that the citywide uptick in meth-related violence has also reared its ugly head at the downtown branch, but it’s impossible to know for sure, and the current policy, which sees security personnel searching the bag of every individual who wishes to enter the downtown branch, is ham-fisted and wrong-headed.

Instituted with what seems to have been minimal staff consultation or discussion, it fails to take into account the realities of the library’s clientele or the different reasons people visit the library. Many visitors pop into Millennium to pick up a selection from the holds section, now frustratingly located just beyond the security cordon. Others are bringing in their children, and are laden with diaper bags, purses and backpacks.

Seizing illegal drugs may stop drug dealing on the premises, but it doesn’t preclude patrons from entering already under the influence. And one imagines Millennium will soon be in possession of the world’s largest collection of Swiss Army knives, not to mention the sewing shears or woodworking tools patrons were formerly encouraged to bring for their own use in the branch’s idea­MILL craft room.

Mr. Cuddy has already acknowledged some of the system’s flaws, recommending that free lockers be installed before security for patrons to store their bags. This would stop the rampant penknife confiscation, and also potentially allow homeless or housing-insecure patrons, who may be carrying weapons for their own safety, entrance to the library, though one imagines they might be unwilling to divest themselves of their belongings.

But until the city adopts an open-book policy — either revealing statistics on violence, inviting public consultation or discussing alternative solutions — the Winnipeg Public Library will not be living up to its name.