PORTLAND (AP) — Some members of the Portland City Council are chilly about a request from the city’s public library to allow security guards to ban unruly patrons without calling police.
The Portland Press Herald reports the library is asking the council to designate three private security guards who work at the downtown library as “constables” who can hand out criminal trespass orders or warnings. A city memo to councilors says “increasing traffic of individuals who are no longer welcome in the library” is the reason.
The council has postponed a vote on the issue until at least Nov. 17. Councilor Jill Duson says the process for banning someone from using the library “should be pretty difficult.” The advocacy coordinator of a nearby homeless services provider also calls the request “worrisome.”
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