Angela Jones (l.), Jarett Dapier (r.)

The ubiquitous nature of white supremacy in libraries makes it difficult to identify. The centering and prioritization of whiteness has made it synonymous with norms within our institutions and throughout the profession. This is the foundation that guides our decisions on who we view as being a good fit to work in and lead our institutions, what materials we promote, and what behavior we view as professional within our staff and appropriate among our patrons. In recent years, many public libraries have made efforts to identify and disrupt this normalization of whiteness as the default and move toward more equitable operational systems. American Libraries furthered this work by releasing an article outlining for libraries when not to call the police, presenting a case for protecting Black patrons. The article asks libraries to identify the differences between what is actually dangerous behavior and behavior that is not dangerous but needs to be addressed another way, or simply makes us uncomfortable. But given the pervasiveness of implicit bias, this work is not simple. We know that implicit bias influences who we view as dangerous, angry, and appropriate. How can librarians determine when their implicit bias has guided them into viewing Black patron behavior as dangerous, and hence guided them to call 911, and when a situation is actually dangerous and requires a police response?

Should you call the police if:

• You see a Black caregiver raising their voice and telling an accompanying crying child that they will give them a spanking
• Two Black male teen patrons are wrestling and yelling in the middle of the Youth Services Area
• A Black patron, whom you suspect of illicit drug use, goes into a bathroom and stays in there for a prolonged period of time
• A Black patron raises their voice at a staff member and says “You are going to regret it if you do not treat me better!”
• A Black teen patron loses his temper when the vending machine does not work correctly and he begins punching and kicking the machine.

How do we know when we are calling the police because of the behavior and when we are calling the police because of the person? It’s not enough to say “Don’t call the police unless you don’t need to think about it” because implicit bias—nurtured and grown in us throughout our lives in a racist culture—can make a person feel that there is a threat even when there isn’t.

We intentionally focused on scenarios involving Black patrons because of the well documented association of Black identities with danger. A general guideline: If there is a scenario in which a patron from another racial background is engaging in the exact same behavior, and you would not call the police (or would try to intervene prior to calling the police), it would be prudent to address the behavior in ways other than calling the police.

While there is no single litmus test that will determine the answer for every situation that will arise in public libraries, there are steps that can be taken to minimize the influence of implicit bias on decisions to engage police:

1. Diversify your staff: While no one is immune to implicit bias, having a wide variety of perspectives will increase your team’s chances of evaluating a situation holistically and decrease the danger of a single story. How much diversity is present on your staff team? Have you cultivated a culture that encourages everyone on your team to see themselves as library leaders? If you diversify your staff team but do not encourage, reward, and make space for all staff members to share their perspectives on how your library engages with your community, you are missing why having a diverse team is important.
    
2. Develop an organizational culture of inquiry and ongoing learning: There is tremendous value in cultivating a culture in which asking questions about decisions is a typical function of everyday operations. Frequently, in organizational cultures where questions are uncommon, defensiveness regarding questions when they do arise is common. If everyone on your staff feels that they are collectively working to support the library’s mission in an ongoing way, you are in a much stronger position to work through challenging situations that emerge, in ways that minimize decisions that further oppression.
    
3. Build review and accountability systems: Data helps us make good decisions. Without data, it is challenging to see trends over time. In schools across the nation, for years we heard feedback from Black parents about disparate disciplinary treatment of Black children. Yet many educational systems only began an effort to implement changes once they looked at data, which provided indisputable proof of disparities. The collective data provided a firm narrative that affirmed individual family experiences as a systemic issue, necessitating a systemic response. Are there members of your staff that tend to engage the police more than others? Are there individual patrons who staff tend to feel they need police assistance with? If you are not gathering information on when and who is engaging the police, you may miss out on important trends that can identify coaching, de-escalation training, and development opportunities.
    
4. Create space for personal reflection and growth: Inquiry into the machinations of implicit bias—how it grows from a young age, how the culture nurtures it, how it is invisible, how it can be denied—is critical to successful library operations and services. Identifying one’s own implicit biases without defensiveness, accepting those biases through concerted effort and work, and rooting out those biases in ways that do not influence one to take dangerous actions against people of color and/or other marginalized individuals are critically important. Does your library create opportunities for staff to learn about implicit bias? In what ways does your library create space for staff to consider and reflect on their actions, behavior, and what causes both?

While many across the country have been working to establish emergency response systems that do not involve police, many libraries still rely on traditional police departments to provide safety services. We encourage libraries that are moving toward rethinking safety systems outside of the traditional police framework to work closely with your staff and communities in identifying what types of support mechanisms are available when you need a non-emergency outside response. Have you explicitly identified what differentiates an emergency situation from a non-emergency situation? Does your city have a human services department or nonprofit organization that provides mental health crisis services? Do you provide conflict de-escalation training for your staff?

For libraries that are still relying on traditional police departments for most (if not all) safety support services, we encourage you to be very clear with your staff about how you are choosing to define safety in your buildings. Do all of your staff have the same understanding of when they should call the police? Do you provide ongoing training to assist staff in understanding their individual implicit bias? What types of situations are the police in your community trained to respond to? What mechanisms do you have in place to minimize implicit bias in the decision to call the police?

While it is important for all libraries to identify implicit bias in decision making, libraries that still rely on police for all of their safety services should understand that the stakes are higher, given that there is a higher likelihood for people of color (especially Black people) to be viewed as dangerous by the police than white patrons in the same circumstances, and that the outcome of this interaction is more likely to result in harm. Lives depend on this work.

Angela M. Jones is a social worker who coordinates opportunities for families at Skokie Public Library. Jarrett Dapier is a young adult services librarian at Skokie Public Library.