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Guards reassigned in library porn case

Two security guards ‘overstepped their authority’ by telling patrons they could not view explicit material

Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006

Until two security guards stood in the center of the Little Falls Library and told patrons to stop viewing online porn sites, the county Department of Homeland Security had kept a quiet watch over county-owned buildings.

Last year the county transferred about 58 security guards from the county’s Department of Public Works and Transportation to the newly formed county Department of Homeland Security.

Although the department’s name may invoke images of the federal Department of Homeland Security created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the job of the county guards is to patrol county buildings, direct traffic and if necessary ask disruptive people to leave.

They wear uniforms with Homeland Security on them, but do not carry weapons and do not have arrest powers.

In an incident reported Friday by The Washington Post, two county Homeland Security guards entered the Little Falls Library in Bethesda on a routine patrol on Feb. 8. When one of the guards saw a library patron at a computer with pornography on the screen, he made a public announcement that such sites were forbidden under the county’s sexual harassment policy, county officials said.

But the guard was wrong.

Library patrons may view sexually explicit materials on the public access computers, county officials said.

The guards ‘‘overstepped their authority,” county Chief Administrative Officer Bruce F. Romer said in a statement.

‘‘When reminded by library staff that Montgomery County Public Library policy supports the rights of patrons to view the materials of their choice, the veteran officer continued to press his case — making the situation worse,” Romer said.

The incident left county officials red-faced.

County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) called the guards’ actions ‘‘highly inappropriate, unauthorized and in violation of county policy,” he said in a statement. ‘‘What they did was wrong and I do not condone, in any way, shape or form, their behavior.”

The county reprimanded and reassigned the guards, said county officials who declined to name the guards citing confidentiality on personnel matters.

The county also ordered additional training for all Homeland Security guards.

‘‘It is vitally important that as we increase security to protect our homeland that we take extraordinary steps to protect the rights of our residents,” Duncan said. ‘‘We have worked very hard to strike this balance, but unfortunately the two security officials involved in last week’s incident got it wrong.”

Additional training is intended to make sure the security personnel ‘‘understand library policy and its consistency with residents’ First Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution,” Romer said.

County Councilman Michael J. Knapp, who heads the council’s Homeland Security Committee, said the guards faced ‘‘two or three competing policies” and ‘‘they probably didn’t interpret them as well as we’d like. It was probably a good learning experience for everybody.”

Until the incident at Little Falls Library, the council had heard only praise about the Homeland Security guards for their professionalism, said Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown, who was briefed by Romer on the incident.

A security officer 1’s salary begins at $31,771 a year and rises to $52,950 with 20 years of experience. The job’s minimum qualifications include a high school education, a year’s experience at security work and CPR-training certification. The county also requires the guards to have the ‘‘ability to assess situations quickly and objectively and determine proper course of action, handling situations and individuals firmly, courteously and tactfully.”

For years, building guards had been part of the Department of Public Works and Transportation’s Intelligence Coordination and Security force, Knapp said.

‘‘The thinking was that our security guards didn’t fit well in any place,” he said. ‘‘As we created the new Homeland Security department, one of the things considered was the continuity of government and securing government facilities and the county executive made a compelling case to put them there,” Knapp said.

As part of the Department of Public Works and Transportation, the guards were called to do building maintenance occasionally. Putting them under the Department of Homeland Security, where they make up the bulk of the department’s 72 employees, was intended to put more focus on their security work, Knapp said.

Gordon A. Aoyagi, the county’s Homeland Security director, referred all questions about the agency to Duncan spokesman David S. Weaver, who said no further statements would be made.