San Diego leaders are cranking up efforts to combat the rampant drug activity, violence, encampments and loitering that have plagued the Central Library for years.
San Diego police officers and the nearby business district are initiating a four-week, early-morning enforcement push to clear encampments outside the library, according to public records obtained by Times of San Diego.
Librarians, meanwhile, are now more than a year into a dramatic increase in the number of suspensions they hand out to patrons who break the law or violate rules in the city’s architectural landmark.
They handed out nearly 70% more suspensions in 2025 than a year earlier. But they’re on pace to slide back from that total in 2026, amid budget cuts that reduced security at the building.
The police department’s Neighborhood Policing Division launched the four-week operation to clear encampments and then clean the sidewalks surrounding the Central Library on Aug. 24.
“We have been experiencing significant issues in this area involving drug paraphernalia, human waste, and other similar conditions, so the goal is to pair the early morning enforcement with immediate cleaning of the surrounding sidewalks,” Franklin Coopersmith, the director of the city’s environmental services department, wrote in an Aug. 18 email.
He said this will continue daily for four weeks, then be reevaluated on Sept. 18 “to determine whether the combination of consistent early morning enforcement and cleaning is having an impact.”
The new push on encampment sweeps comes as librarians and library security say they are overwhelmed with the loitering around the library and illegal activity inside it.
“With the budget reductions, we had to reduce security by three guards at Central and went from two guards to one guard during closed hours,” wrote Library Director Misty Jones in an email to Mayor Todd Gloria’s East Village community representative.
“During open hours, we have been informing people that they can’t loiter because we have a school in the building, but once we close they come out in droves and it is impossible (and not safe) for one guard to try to get them to move on. If they do move off the property, they just go around to the sidewalk on the outside of the courtyard.”
Jones and city staff aren’t the only people urging the Mayor’s office and police to do more. Residents, businesses and school administrators at E3 Civic High, a charter school inside the Central Library, write to Gloria’s office frequently about the state of the city’s flagship library, as do many nearby residents.
“Living near the Central Library was something to be excited about,” wrote an unnamed resident to city officials on Aug. 22. “It should be one of the greatest public resources in our neighborhood. Instead, after being nearby while two murders occurred, witnessing open violence, multiple overdoses, constant drug activity and increasingly disturbing behavior, many neighbors are now afraid to use the library or even walk around it. That should alarm every leader receiving this email.”
Another resident echoed those complaints in an email to City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn.
“Open drug use, public urination and defecation, and camping in the plaza and on the surrounding sidewalks are recurring conditions that residents and library patrons are expected to navigate day after day,” wrote a resident in a redacted email obtained by Times of San Diego. “I understand that homelessness and addiction are complex issues and require more than enforcement alone. But that cannot mean allowing this important public facility to become routinely unsafe and unsanitary.”
Amid the complaints and budget cuts, city librarians are indeed stepping up enforcement inside the library.
Suspensions handed out to library patrons increased dramatically in 2025, increasing from 262 suspensions the prior year to 445 suspensions in 2025, according to city data.
With the increased suspensions, the city’s Library Department has issued new violation guidelines for librarians to follow when suspending a patron at the downtown library.
Librarians must now classify violations as severe — those that include “immediate threats to public safety” — moderate violations, such as those that “significantly obstruct the use and enjoyment of the Library facilities by other patrons, “and minor violations.
The city’s director of communications, Nicole Darling, says the city and the police department are making sure the library and the surrounding area is safe for all members of the public.
“We take these complaints seriously, and ensuring that public shared spaces such as city libraries, parks, recreation centers, and open spaces are clean and safe is a high priority for both NPD (Neighborhood Policing Division) and ESD (Environmental Services),” Darling wrote in an email to Times of San Diego.
“We will continue to evaluate and monitor the area around the Central Library and continue to address criminal activity and/or unsanitary conditions as needed to ensure that location is clean, safe and crime-free for all.”
