VIOLENCE continues to haunt Hackney’s efforts to make its eight libraries safe.

The borough’s valuable resource of knowledge centres, as they are sometimes known, have been fitted with more CCTV cameras. Hackney council has also boosted the amount of security at what it terms “busy” times, a euphemism for the hours after the school day ends and before dinner lures teenage boys home.

Community services councillor Jon Burke told Loving Dalston that extra training for staff had also made a difference. 

He added:“We will continue to review incidents on a case-by-case basis and introduce any new measures that we feel necessary to protect the safety of our staff, which is our primary concern. All threats to staff or similar incidents have been reported to the police to investigate.”

Hackney police have previously declined to give figures on the number or nature of such incidents. However Loving Dalston has been told that some people connected to the library have been physically threatened by mentally disturbed men. One man waited at the nearby station but the worker managed to avoid any incident.

David Altheer 230117

* Backstory: Readin’ an’ a-ruckin’ in Hackney libraries; Where safety is a worry 

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