Investigation shows library safety a concern
A sex offender meets two fifth-graders and shows them photos of women in swimsuits; a 10-year-old watches pornography on a computer; a woman is assaulted by a strange man.
The above cases are just a few of the troubling incidents that have occurred at Aurora's Public Library buildings in the last two years.
The above cases are just a few of the troubling incidents that have occurred at Aurora's Public Library buildings in the last two years.
The findings are the result of a CBS2/Beacon News investigation into crime and other inappropriate behavior occurring at public libraries throughout the Chicago metropolitan area.
The findings are the result of a CBS2/Beacon News investigation into crime and other inappropriate behavior occurring at public libraries throughout the Chicago metropolitan area.
Thousands of internal library incident reports and police records were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Aurora's three library branches have been the site of 1,118 police service calls since 2000. Aurora police records reveal 108 assault, battery or disorderly conduct calls; 83 theft calls; 44 drunkenness or public intoxication calls; and two bomb threats.
"When you put it all together in one lump sum, it is like wow!" said Eva Luckinbill, executive director of the Aurora Public Library. "But when you deal with one or two (incidents) a week it doesn't hit you the same."
Luckinbill says the CBS2/Beacon News investigation has revealed crime and safety issues facing librarians across the country.
"It is a topic that many staff members are concerned about," she said.
She will now consult the Aurora Police Department on a possible staff training seminar to learn how to deal with crime issues and how to report them promptly.
"I definitely would like to work closely with the Aurora Police Department and training," Luckinbill said.
The investigation was launched after a series of complaints to CBS2 from various library patrons about crime, pornography and library security.
Some library users feared crimes occurring at libraries were not being reported to police unless a patron called 911.
For example, in Naperville records show seven men were caught viewing pornography at libraries and touching themselves in a sexual manner during the last two years. At least two of the cases were the subject of internal library incident reports but were not reported to local police.
In Joliet, a man was written up for printing what a library worker said appeared to be child pornography but police were not called.
At Aurora's main library, a woman reported to staff in July an assault that included the grabbing of her buttocks and verbal harassment about her breasts, but again police were not called.
"Anytime a crime is committed we want to know," said Aurora police spokesman Dan Ferrelli. "They apparently didn't call us."
Krug recommends libraries devote at least one day a year to training on why it is important to call police when patrons report criminal activity.
"The staff person involved made a bad judgment call," Luckinbill said of the Aurora incident. She admits they could have called police in the assault case so a sketch of the alleged suspect could have been made.
Police say to the credit of Luckinbill and library staff, most crimes are being reported at Aurora facilities in a timely matter, a point Luckinbill wants stressed to patrons: "We have a responsibility to the safety of people who come to our buildings."
"Pretty scary," says Luckinbill in the matter of a 10-year-old caught visiting some very adult sites. "Pornography also has been a problem and is a constant issue on how to monitor it."
Aurora library rules prohibit the viewing of online pornography, and patrons are continuously warned. CBS2's check of library incident reports since 2004 documented 28 cases of people warned or banned from the library for logging on to sexually explicit Web sites.
According to Luckinbill, library policies require any child in fifth grade or younger to have a parent with them to access computers; sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders must have a permission card from parents for an unfiltered computer pass; high school students do not need an adult signature and are on the honor system to stay off graphic sites.
In the case of a sex offender who was in the library on May 31, police were called quickly, according to Ferrelli.
"They immediately called us, and we served him with a trespass warning," he said.
The man identified as Dennis Blair is listed on the Sex Offender Registry as being in violation of the sex offender registration act. He was reported to have alcohol on his breath and was talking to two Aurora fifth-grade girls on the second floor of the main library near the computers and magazines.
In Blair's case Aurora's private library security guard acted swiftly, and police were on the scene in minutes. Blair now is banned from the library.
The act requires a court order before library records can be released.
Police in Naperville and Bolingbrook are currently trying to get a bill passed in Illinois that would give law enforcement immediate access to library records in cases of serious crimes. If a suspect leaves a library before a police officer arrives, a subpoena or search warrants is needed to access any library information related to the suspect's identity.
"I think it protects criminals unduly," Naperville Police Chief David Dial said. "We do not want to tread on anybody's rights to privacy or anything else, but we do not believe that the libraries should be sanctuaries for criminals."
Dial needed a court order when a suspect who was fondling himself in front of children at the library got away before officers arrived. The library knew the offender's name because he had signed a computer terminal log sheet, but the Naperville librarians did not turn the information over until they were served with a search warrant -- which took a day and a half to obtain.
"We subsequently identified and arrested that person but it took time," Dial said. "And in the interim he was free to walk around and commit any other crime that he may wish to do."
Aurora police spokesman Ferrelli said police would be in favor of legislation that would give them access to library records in cases of imminent danger.
"Obviously anything that is going to make the police department's job easier in the event of a crime being committed that could lead us to a perpetrator would be favorable to us," he said.
Ferrelli said he can think of only one time he needed a court order for library information, recalling a case involving a library book found at a crime scene. The court order was obtained in attempt to find out who had checked out the book, but it turned out the book had been stolen from the library.
"We are reasonable," said Luckinbill. In the event of a serious crime like child abduction, "I would want to give as much help and do the right thing."
