Small Virginia police departments strained by Walmart crimes
Washington County VA May 26 2019
A News 5 investigation reveals crime at Walmart is tying up local police departments.
Washington County, Virginia has two Walmart locations in it’s jurisdiction. One located at Exit 7 in Bristol, Virginia and one at Exit 19 in Abingdon, Virginia.
News 5 obtained the numbers of calls that police responded to Walmart through an open records request for multiple agencies in the Tri-Cities.
In 2018, at both Washington County, Virginia locations deputies responded to 817 calls at Walmart. In comparison, in 2018 deputies responded to 127 calls at Target.
“The new Walmart at Exit 19 opened about two years ago,” said Washington County Sheriff, Fred Newman. “They were open for 45 minutes when we got our first call for a shoplifter.”
Washington County, Virginia is not the only one with a Walmart crime problem.
Across the state line in Tennessee, Bristol police officers responded to 913 calls to Walmart last year, including when a man was gunned down in the parking lot.
Bristol, Tennessee Police said it’s important to note that their numbers include traffic stops in the parking lot.
In Kingsport, the city responds to three Walmart locations: 2500 West Stone Drive, 3200 Fort Henry Drive, and 750 Lynn Garden Drive.
Last year, the KPD wrote 1,381 reports at all three locations.
“People say ‘Hey that’s not fair, Walmart is taking up all the resources,'” said Walmart spokesman, Casey Staheli. “But I do want to emphasize we pay taxes in all of the local communities in addition to donating to local communities, charities and organizations that are there for the betterment of the community.”
Staheli said they are aware of the crime problems, but are working hard to correct it.
He said they are increasing staff at the exits and entrances, providing de-escalation training for employees in the store, improving lighting at the stores, adding more security cameras, and placing higher fencing in lawn and garden areas of the store.
“It’s helping us shift from detecting crime, to deterring it which is where we want to be,” said Staheli. “We want criminals to recognize this is a hard target and not even make an attempt.”
While police understand Walmart is doing the best they can, answering the calls is a strain on local police departments.
“Anything that certainly they could do to assist us and allow us to not spend as much time responding to those calls would be helpful to our agency,” said Sheriff Newman.
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