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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWalmart’s Out-of-Control Crime Problem Is Driving Police Crazy
Darrell RossOfficer Walmart to his colleagues in the Tulsa Police Departmentoperates for up to 10 hours a day out of the security office of a Walmart Supercenter in the citys northeast corner. Its a small, windowless space with six flatscreen monitors mounted on a pale blue cinder-block wall, and on this hot summer day, the room is packed. Four Walmart employees watch the monitors, which toggle among the dozens of cameras covering the store and parking lot, while doing paperwork and snacking on Cheez Whiz and Club Crackers. In a corner of the room, an off-duty sheriffs officer, hired by Walmart, makes small talk with the employees.
As soon as Ross walks in the door, around 2 p.m., hes presented with an 18-year-old who tried to leave the store with a microwave oven. Ross focuses his gaze and talks in a low voice to the young man, who just graduated from high school and plans to go into the military. He also attempts to calm the boys mother, who rushed to the store and is worried that her son wont be able to enlist if he gets a criminal record. You need to start taking responsibility for your actions, Ross tells the teenager. Youre a man now. He tells the mother that because it was the boys first offense, he wont be arrestedbut if he messes up twice more, hell be charged with a felony. Ross slips a pair of reading glasses out of his bulletproof vest and writes the young man a summons to appear in court.
Before he can finish the paperwork, Walmart security employees catch another shoplifter. They bring in a middle-aged woman with big sunken eyes and pale cheeks, her hair tied in a messy bun. Employees caught her using phony gift cards. She rattles off excuses: The cards were given to her by a friend, shes just gotten out of the hospital, shes dehydrated. At one point she pretends to vomit into a trash can. Picking up the odor of pot, Ross takes a look in her handbag and finds marijuana roaches, along with a small scale and a pill bottle full of baggies. A computer check reveals five outstanding warrants for her arrest.
Its not unusual for the department to send a van to transport all the criminals Ross arrests at this Walmart. The call log on the store stretches 126 pages, documenting more than 5,000 trips over the past five years. Last year police were called to the store and three other Tulsa Walmarts just under 2,000 times. By comparison, they were called to the citys four Target stores about 300 times. Most of the calls to the northeast Supercenter were for shoplifting, but theres no shortage of more serious crimes, including five armed robberies so far this year, a murder suspect who killed himself with a gunshot to the head in the parking lot last year, and, in 2014, a group of men who got into a parking lot shootout that killed one and seriously injured two others.
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-walmart-crime/
hunter
(38,263 posts)Ohioblue22
(1,430 posts)In their cities
ghostsinthemachine
(3,569 posts)What makes them more succepitble than other retailers?
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)Maybe a larger store and fewer employees per customers than other retailers? Just guessing.
Ruby the Liberal
(26,216 posts)Visibility (and lack) of employees, 24 hour stores, choice of location, etc...
It is a great read.
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)This particular Wal-Mart (Tulsa) is in a horrible part of town. I haven't been there in nearly ten years.
Chakaconcarne
(2,383 posts)Gotta love this great American success story.
Nancyswidower
(182 posts)"In a corner of the room, an off-duty sheriffs officer, hired by Walmart, makes small talk with the employees. "
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)Ruby the Liberal
(26,216 posts)Add police resources to the list of how Walmart is draining the public coffers to subsidize private profits.
K&R
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)What happens is that it simply concentrates the activity at one place that otherwise would have been more dispersed.
I saw it when I was a deputy and Wal-Mart came to a town that had not had one. The folks getting picked up there were the same ones that otherwise would have been arrested for similar crimes at other businesses or at the next nearest Walmart or Kmart. They didn't change behavior, just location.
And when you have any business that is high traffic in a poor area it will have more crime- Walmart in a poor area has more crime than one in a well off suburb just like two gas stations in similar areas will have varied levels of criminal activity. But I would rather see a business be willing to deal with that and the local government back them up than see them abandon those areas with no stores at all.
I saw lots and lots of stupid stuff at Walmart on calls, and the day the city annexed it, meaning the city PD had responsibility for calls instead of us, was celebrated. The city knew the call volume going in and according to them the tax revenue was enough to pay for 2 more full time officers and they figured the calls accounted for .75 of one full time officers time, so they saw it as a win.
This isn't really about Walmart. It is about how awful that sector of Tulsa is.
jpak
(41,741 posts)we had a murder, a huffing-related car crash (stolen huff no less) and a standoff at 3 different Wallworlds.
and a shootout at another one the month before.
What is going on?
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)Zing Zing Zingbah
(6,496 posts)I think I saw it Saturday. WGME had three different Walmart crimes has headlines on the front page. Not much crime in Maine, but seems like what little crime we have is happening at Walmart. Still pretty safe overall. I'm not worried.