Mayor’s Office proposes letting police check out library patron information

The Omaha Mayor’s Office would like law enforcement officials to be able to access personal information from Omahans’ library cards in emergencies, setting off a debate over patrons’ privacy.

Mayor Jean Stothert’s chief of staff, Marty Bilek, appeared before the Omaha Public Library’s board Thursday to ask for a change in the library’s policy.

The request stemmed from an incident in which Metropolitan Community College police spent hours trying to identify a belli­gerent, drunk man at the South Omaha Library.

He refused to give his name, and the only form of identification he had was a library card. But under current policy, library staff couldn’t tell officers his name.

http://www.omaha.com/news/metro/mayor-s-office-proposes-letting-police-check-out-library-patron/article_0db6d234-f205-506e-be53-b74452c2d8df.html