Wal-Mart: Police calls fall since steps
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said there has been a reduction in the number of times police have been called to its stores on average nationwide since implementing a pair of theft prevention programs.
The Bentonville-based retailer provided internal data after another round of criticism about the number of calls to police that have occurred across the country because of crimes committed in its stores and parking lots.
The latest came from a labor group, which announced plans to kick off an ad campaign designed to call attention to the volume of shoplifting and petty crimes that occur at Wal-Mart stores and the use of police resources needed to deal with the crime.
But Wal-Mart said Tuesday that police calls have dropped an average of 35 percent since beginning its “more at the door” and “restorative justice” programs earlier this year.
“We are continuing our increased outreach to law enforcement across the country as part of our ongoing commitment to meet our customers’ and associates’ expectations of a safe and enjoyable shopping experience,” spokesman Blake Jackson said. “The importance of this issue is recognized at the highest levels of the company, and we are investing in people and technology to support our stores.”
The purpose of Wal-Mart’s “more at the door” program is to deter shoplifters by putting more of its employees near store exits. As part of the effort, the retailer said, it has added 9,000 customer “hosts” in the past few months.
Customer hosts are in about one-third of Wal-Mart’s supercenters. Greeters are at the doors in others.
In addition, Wal-Mart has implemented what it calls a restorative-justice program in about 1,500 stores that allows
first-time offenders who are caught stealing items below a certain value to avoid arrest by going through a theft-prevention program. Wal-Mart said it is working with two different restorative-justice providers — the Corrective Education Co. and Turning Point Justice — that are partnering with the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention.
Wal-Mart said the recidivism rate for individuals going through the restorative-justice program is 2 to 3 percent, depending on the provider.
But Making Change at Walmart campaign, which is backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, doesn’t believe that the retailer is investing enough in policing its stores and pointed toward recent investigations when announcing its new ad effort Tuesday.
The group referred to a Tampa Bay Times analysis that showed local law enforcement agencies logged nearly 16,800 calls from Wal Mart stores in four Florida counties in one year, though that does not include how many of the calls drew police to stores. It also highlighted a Bloomberg investigation showing police were called to four Wal-Marts in Tulsa just under 2,000 times in one year.
The group’s criticism will be heard in television ads scheduled to air in Tulsa, Dallas, St. Paul, Minn., and Tampa, Fla. Spokesman Meredith Ritchie said the ads will appear for a minimum of one week, but the length of time will be adjusted in each city according to the response.
Making Change at Walmart also said it is distributing fliers to customers in 20 other cities and will call on Wal-Mart to disclose its internal crime database and individual risk scores. The group said the retailer uses the risk scores to set the level of security spending for its stores.
“Wal-Mart must stop asking local police departments to do their job, and taxpayers to subsidize its security,” Randy Parraz, the campaign’s director, said in a statement. “This is not an issue of whether Wal-Mart can do more, it is about why they are putting profits ahead of the community. The simple solution is for Wal-Mart to do what is right and invest more in under-staffed stores and security.”