There are lot of places in L.A. where like-minded individuals can hook-up: Bars, clubs and the occasional AA meeting.

But the library? Yes — the Downtown Central Library, to be accurate.

Police are cracking down after a surge in reported sexual liaisons in the library, mostly in — you guessed it — …

… the men's restrooms. The action seems to be of the same-sex variety.

Brenda J. Breaux, a spokeswoman for the city library system, confirmed that nine people have been cited by undercover police in the library for alleged lewd acts since the beginning of the year.

But it's not clear if there's a surge here.

She notes that the LAPD took over supervision of the library's non-law enforcement security team in July of 2012 and then cracked down on alleged gay cruising in the downtown facility.

Undercover officers were brought in earlier this year. That meant an increase in arrests for a building that sees 145,000 visitors a month, Breaux said:


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I think it's more of a situation now that the LAPD has come in and assessed it. They wanted to address it. We are concerned with it. We don't want that happening. But based on the number of people who visit, it's a low amount of people causing the problem.

The downtown library has been on the so-called gay cruising map for years (NSFW link).

It's clean, quiet and open to the public. What's not to like?

[H/T Los Angeles Downtown News].

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