San Diego Library Plagued with Crime is Averaging a Call a Day to Police, Data Shows

The San Diego Central Library is dealing with much more than advising patrons on which books to check out. 

The library regularly deals with drug overdoses, suicides, thefts, assaults, concealed weapons and other disturbing incidents requiring calls to cops an average of once a day, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports, citing San Diego Police Department data.

On Tuesday, a 20-year-old man was shot dead and another wounded in a library courtyard, CBS 8 reports.

Since May 2018, police have been called to the library more than 1,800 times, according to the Union-Tribune.

“We’ve had an increasing number of incidents with overdoses, (homeless) encampments around the building, fights and thefts,”  librarian Misty Jones told the City Council’s budget committee last year, according to the Union-Tribune.

 “There is a lot of mental illness and substance abuse,” she said, according to the outlet, “and the issues that come along with that.”

Up to nine security guards are on duty each day, and are trained to administer naloxone, a drug to reverse an overdose opioids, the Union-Tribune reports.

“The Central Library is a tragic example of a beautiful facility overrun by crime,” Jarad Wilson, president of the San Diego Police Officers Association, told the Union-Tribune.

The majority of the people who patronize the library are homeless, library officials have said, according to the Union-Tribune. 

San Diego police Lt. Ryan Hallahan told the newspaper that officers increased enforcement in the area in January following complaints over the safety of children attending e3 Civic High inside the facility.

“These kids were seeing homeless people doing drugs, saying and doing inappropriate things that kids don’t need to see,” he told the Union-Tribune.