Colorado Springs library concerned with lack of police officers available to respond to 911 call

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - According to the Pikes Peak Library District, library staff at the Rockrimmon Library called 911 Monday evening when a man entered the building, began screaming at staff and patrons, and threatened to harm himself.

Over the next hour and fifteen minutes, library employees say they made five separate calls to 9-1-1 about the incident and the man himself even called once.

In an email statement today, the Colorado Springs Police Department confirmed they received the calls, but denied that the employees expressed any danger to themselves or others.

"I was able to talk with our dispatch and found that a call was made on Monday at 5:29pm and they stated that a male was intoxicated and causing a verbal disturbance. The address they provided was 832 Village Center Dr. which would be the Rockrimmon Library. At that time, every officer was busy on priority calls, but our dispatch did air the call to all officers, but no one was able to clear. They called back a few other times to give us updates and dispatched advised them that we did not have any officers clear. It was reported that it was a trespass, but it was not reported as a “barricaded person” and it was not reported that anyone was in danger. The last call came in at 6:46 PM by security, who advised us that they no longer needed PD to respond. They also informed us that they made a mistake and provided us the wrong address and then gave us an address of 5550 N Union Blvd., which would be their East Library. 

So, as you can see there is a lot going on here and we did not response as security told us they did not need us, and it was handled. You can also see the wrong address was provided by them, so it might be something they need to talk about as a team.

- Spokesperson for Colorado Springs Police Department

The Pikes Peak Library District maintains that the staff felt they were in danger during the disturbance, which is why they called the police.

"I can say that the staff did feel unsafe at a certain time and that is why they called for further assistance from CSPD," said Michael Branton, Chief of Security for the Pikes Peak Library District.

They also maintain that the incident did occur at the Rockrimmon Library location and that they have no knowledge of staff or security providing the incorrect address to police.

"The safety of our patrons and our staff is our highest priority, and we're continually working with Colorado Springs police and other law enforcement agencies across the region to make sure that our library is as safe as it can possibly be," Branton said.

May 1, 2024 Update: The Colorado Springs Police Department has looked into what happened and provided the following clarification.

As we have been able to evaluate the situation further, the details of what played out have become clearer. The first call for service at 5:28 PM from the Rockrimmon Library came in as a priority 3 trespassing call. About 35 minutes later, the call for service was upgraded to a priority 2 disturbance call. Approximately 55 minutes after the first call for service at the Rockrimmon Library (approx. 6:24 PM), a call for service came in for a priority 2 disturbance at the East Library on N. Union. Then, about 20 minutes later, a call was received from library security stating that officers were no longer needed at the Union location, and the call for service was canceled at both locations which is why officers never arrived at the Rockrimmon location. These two overlapping calls created some confusion in our call center, which is what led to both calls for service being canceled when security called from the East Library, saying officers were no longer needed. This type of confusion is something we are addressing internally and working to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

CSPD spokesperson