A tale of two security checks

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/03/2019 (2102 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Last Saturday afternoon, I went to buy a bottle of wine and came face to face with an armed police officer. The Liquor Mart’s new security measure was welcome.

On the next day, I visited the Millennium Library and stood in line with other disgruntled patrons so guards could search us for weapons. The library’s new security measure was offensive.

The contrast between the two experiences offered vivid examples of how scrutiny of our behaviour, our personal possessions and our bodies can be valid or can be unmerited. Much depends on context.

On March 20, Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries announced sweeping security changes for its Winnipeg liquor stores. Most customers had only one question: what took them so long?

For many months, thieves with an attitude of insolence were allowed to brazenly ignore the stores’ cashiers. MLL had apparently told its staff not to intervene physically because the thieves might become violent. The result was Liquor Marts had the ambience of a schoolyard, where bullies hold sway because the other kids are scared of a beating.

Winnipeggers will long remember the winter of 2019 for the ludicrous spectacle of Liquor Mart customers lined up at the cashiers — some of us still hold to the traditional belief that people who want retail products should pay for them — and watching with perplexity as punks bypassed the tills and strolled out unimpeded with armfuls of unpaid liquor.

That free-for-all ended this month. MLL unveiled anti-theft measures that include uniformed special duty constables at targeted Liquor Marts. Other changes include increased customer identification checks, bottle locks, dummy bottles, locked shelves, active alarm pedestals, a no-bag policy and controlled entrances and exits.

If my experience Saturday was any indication, the problem of Liquor Mart thefts in Winnipeg has been solved. No one would dare attempt a theft within range of the officer who eyeballed me about 5:45 p.m. at the store at Leila Avenue and McPhillips Street.

He stood next to the till and stared at customers. He had the size and demeanour of a football linebacker. He was in full police uniform, including a holstered pistol on his right hip.

After paying for a bottle of Riesling, I caught the officer’s eye and said, “Welcome here.” I meant it. It was necessary to end liquor store lawlessness. He nodded in acknowledgment and went back to staring at other customers, looking for trouble.

This encouraging experience was in strong contrast to a disheartening visit to the Millennium Library as it opened at 1 p.m. Sunday. Dozens lined up for the humiliating welcome with which Winnipeg’s main library now greets its patrons. Security guards poked though our bags with sticks, made us empty our pockets and used metal-detector wands to check for weapons.

An important difference between Liquor Marts and the library is the library isn’t trying to catch thieves. Patrons are searched before they enter the premises. Besides, no one has to steal stuff from the Millennium; a wonderful aspect of libraries is they give most of their stuff away for free, as long as patrons bring it back.

My wait in the library lineup was seven minutes before it was my turn to have my privacy violated. It felt like a library I have long supported now regards me as a suspicious person who can’t be trusted.

I would encourage management and members of the library board to try it. Get in line and listen to patrons. Many are peeved they are automatically regarded as criminals until proven otherwise.

“What’s happening here is very disturbing,” Barbara Lacquette told me. She had just visited Vancouver’s main library and found, unlike Winnipeg, it still welcomes its patrons nicely. “Here, they’re even searching old ladies.”

Librarians and library technicians have long been among my favourite people (full disclosure: I married one). They are the gatekeepers to vast stores of enlightenment and entertainment, and are unfailingly pleasant and helpful. But they’re no longer the library’s main ambassadors.

The new faces of the Millennium Library are the intrusive security guards.

There is a different way.

The Winnipeg Public Library Board can suggest management halt the intensive inspections. Instead, take the funding spent on increased security guards and hire people who have excellent written English-language skills. Call them language coaches. Make these new language coaches prominently available to help people who struggle with day-to-day writing: newcomers to Canada filling out forms, students who want feedback on essays, jobless people writing letters of application.

By helping visitors, instead of annoying them with mandatory searches, the Millennium Library can restore its image as a haven for its patrons.

Carl DeGurse is a member of the Free Press editorial board.

carl.degurse@freepress.mb.ca