"Staff feels intimidated by the patrons" @ the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library

Kokomo library to hire security officers. (Kokomo Tribune, 4/19/2011)

Excerpt:    Security officers will be returning to the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library.

The board of trustees Monday voted to spend $9,450 for the remainder of the year to either hire off-duty police officers to provide security or contract with a private security company.

Charles Joray, executive director of the library, said there has been an increase in the number of “incidents” reported by staff through the first three months of 2011. He said there were a total of 70 incidents last year – and 68 reported during the first three months of this year.

An incident was defined as a confrontation between a staff member and library patron about behavior in the library.

“When there were off-duty police officers, the number of incidents went down,” Joray said. “The staff feels intimidated by the patrons.”