Some library workers say that safety issues have put employees and library-goers at risk. “Libraries find themselves at the intersection of housing instability, untreated mental illness and rampant drug use,” library analyst Kelly Clark says.
Libraries are meant to be a safe and quiet place for learning, but some library workers across the United States say that safety issues have put employees and library-goers at risk.
Calls coming from local libraries have inundated many police departments. According to police records, there have been over 500 calls to authorities from the San Diego Central Library in the past year, including a report of a fatal shooting.
Shelly Jamison’s son Trey Walker was fatally shot outside of the library after police say he confronted a man who tried to steal his friend’s backpack.
Surveillance video shows the suspect running away. He has pleaded not guilty.
“This is supposed to be a good safe place to come to,” Jamison tells Inside Edition.
Vincent Facey patrols the aisles of a library in upstate New York.
“You have individuals who want to talk loud and intimidate people, so we try to alleviate that and move them along,” Facey tells Inside Edition. “The last thing I thought that I would ever have to do would (be) draw [my weapon] on someone in the library.”
Facey spent 20 years as an NYPD officer.
“Most people that come to the library are good people that want to enjoy the library, that don’t want to be afraid to come into the library and use the services. And that’s what we try to do, make them safe,” Facey says.
Inside Edition found homeless people sleeping in the San Diego Central Library.
“Libraries find themselves at the intersection of housing instability, untreated mental illness and rampant drug use such as fentanyl use and methamphetamine use,” library analyst Kelly Clark says.
Clark’s librarian wife, Amber, was shot and killed in 2018 by a man whom she had banned from entering the library due to disruptive behavior.
“He parked his car in front of the library where he had an eye on the door and as she exited the library, he followed her to her car and he shot her 11 times at point blank range,” Clark tells Inside Edition.
Clark says librarians are devoted to education, not law enforcement.
"That’s not what they trained for," Clark says. "They didn’t go to school for that. That’s not what they signed up for."
