A college library is a place for students to study and work on projects, but it can also be an area in which people gather for less-than-honorable reasons. On some campuses, the large size of the library means that it can have several quiet nooks in which improper activities can take place. If you're a new college security guard, you should plan to patrol every floor of the library regularly. Don't always use the same patrol pattern; sometimes, changing things up so that you visit at different times can help you catch perpetrators in the act. Here are some types of activities that you may encounter on these patrols.

Theft

Students, and even non-students, who are looking to make some quick money may decide to steal from other students, and there are few better places to commit such acts than in a college library. Whether it's grabbing a tablet out of a student's backpack while it hangs on the back of a chair or snatching a laptop off a desk while a student is grabbing a book from a nearby shelf, such crimes of opportunity can happen quickly and be costly. Your presence in the library can deter such acts, and you can help track down and detain those who have victimized the students.

Sexual Activity

Libraries and sex might not seem to go hand in hand, but some students will occasionally use a low-traffic bathroom on a quiet floor of the campus library for sexual activity. Even if it's consensual, such activities have no place in public areas of the campus and must be dealt with quickly. When you maintain a regular visible presence in the library, including checking in the bathrooms each time that you pass, students who may be planning a tryst will often think otherwise and may head to their dorms where they can do whatever they're going to do behind closed doors.

Trespassing

Sometimes homeless people will sneak into a college campus and look for a place to rest or a spot to get out of the weather during the winter. This is especially true for downtown campuses or schools where there is a large homeless population nearby. School administrators don't want non-campus members using any area, including the library, for such purposes. As a security officer, you have the responsibility to remove such individuals from the library, inform them that they're trespassing, and threaten to call the police if you see them again.

Reach out to a company like Axios Security Consultants for more information on proper security measures.