The letter made by the trade unions is sent to the Culture & Leisure Committee in Kumla municipality. It reached the municipality this week. It reads:
“For several years, Kumla library has been a place where drug dealing and abuse take place. Since the fall of 2023, the staff at the library have experienced that the problem has increased significantly, which makes the workplace unsafe. Several in the staff group feel worried and unsettled, especially when working in the evening”
Larger gangs move around
According to the letter, traces of drug use are visible almost daily. This in the form of syringes, blood splashes, foils and other things. Even visitors to the library are often mentioned to be aware of people under the influence of drugs, which they feel uneasy about.
It also reads:
“Ambulances have had to be called in case of overdose and sometimes fights occur between drug-affected people where staff have to go in and try to calm them down. Larger groups (8-10 people) sometimes move around the library. Staff have also seen new recruitment of people in their younger teens who apply to this gang”
There are patrolling security guards in Kumla. But these cannot be stationed at the library all the time. According to the letter, more needs to be done to remedy the problems.
“Staff contact security guards and the police when necessary and sometimes they have the opportunity to come. Over time, the staff has seen that the work done to fix the problems in recent years has unfortunately not worked. We wish to find new measures that can work”, concludes the letter.
Previous actions completed
Examples of measures that have existed in the past are having a blue light inside the toilet. This is to make it more difficult to use drugs in the toilet.
However, this illumination has disappeared.
Another measure is that visitors must ask for a key before visiting the toilet. This has also ceased as library staff did not want to decide whether the key should be handed out or not.
Sydnärkenytt asks to get back with an answer from Kumla municipality on the matter.
