SAN ANTONIO – An analysis of police calls to the San Antonio Police Department from Walmart and Target stores show a variety of calls made in the time period of August 2015 to August 2016. While the calls do not reflect actual crimes committed, security expert Richard Smith, with Con10gency Consulting, said they can sometimes be indicative of problems at those given locations.
Smith, who has almost three decades of law enforcement experience, rode along with KSAT to assess vulnerabilities at an area Walmart store.
"These are big stores, and big stores — they're very hard to cover every square inch," Smith said.
Smith said there are many factors that contribute to the number of police calls made from big box retailers, including how parking lots are supervised, the number of visible employees, operating hours and the size of a given location.
Calls to San Antonio police averaged 330 per year for Walmart locations and 143 for Target locations in the area.
"Walmarts and Targets, they're always going to be a victim to the environment in which they do business," Smith said. "You, the individual, you have to be smart. You have to pay attention. "
While Target has not yet replied to KSAT’s request for comment, Anne Hatfield, spokeswoman for Walmart, sent this statement:
"No retailer is immune to the challenge of crime. The importance of this issue is recognized at the highest levels of the company and we are moving aggressively to address these issues by investing in robust technologies and crime prevention efforts while also working closely with law enforcement, security professionals, and community leaders."
Hatfield also highlighted a variety of ways Walmart is working to make their stores safer, including implementing programs like "Restorative Justice," which allows first-time offenders to complete a class, as opposed to being arrested. The program was introduced in 20 San Antonio Walmart locations over the summer, and Hatfield said police calls have dropped by 60 percent in the last few months, which is after the time period we looked at for this report.
Hatfield said Walmart has introduced another program called "More at the Door," which adds customer service personnel at the front of each store entry. And the retailer is also tightening its returns policy to prevent fraud, and are adding more associates on the sales floor.