LBPD respond to alleged bomb threat at Walmart in December 2013. Photo by Sarah Bennett.

The Walmart at City Place has an issue and it’s not with their prices: in 2013 alone, the business had over 500 calls for service (CFS) to the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD), prompting concern from Downtown citizens that little or nothing was being done about the situation.

Of those hundreds of CFSs, over 100 alone were what LBPD calls 990s (pick up prisoner), or when Walmart had a private arrest on their property and requested the LBPD come to transport the violator to jail or cite and release. Other CFSs included terrorist threats, battery, burglary, and grand theft to a person, to name just a few.

All from one business. All in one year.

This isn’t to say that the LBPD hasn’t been doing anything, at least according to West Division Commander Richard Rocchi, nor is it entirely fair to place the entirety of the blame onto the LBPD, considering nuisance abatement is a systemic issue.

“We are just one part of nuisance abatement,” Rocchi said. “We have been working continually with Walmart for the past year to address the problem.”

Rocchi also noted that records for stops require an address, so some of the calls listed in the LBPD’s response to our records request could stem from traffic stops and not necessarily from Walmart itself. But there’s no doubt that LBPD personnel recognize there is a problem with the business itself, as they met with Walmart in May of last year to start helping the corporate giant’s Downtown location operate more smoothly.

“We worked directly with Walmart as they transitioned into a new management and loss prevention team,” Rocchi said, “and the numbers have clearly improved.”

The commander is correct in that: 2014 has seen a slight drop in CFSs, thereby showing improvement which is precisely what the LBPD aims for.

“When we identify a ‘problem property’ and we have an ongoing nuisance issue, we reach out to the property owner and the Nuisance Abatement department to help resolve the issue,” Rocchi said, “If nothing improves or the business doesn’t cooperate, that is when Nuisance Abatement will take the case and investigate… But Walmart has seen improvements and, at least on our side, that is great.”

The cost to the City that Walmart is racking up with so many calls for service is, according to the LBPD, inestimable given that certain calls prompt certain actions; sometimes more officers are needed for a specific call, or sometimes an arrest is not made and therefore a transfer is not needed.

This, however, does not mean that there is no cost at all nor is this a Long Beach Walmart-only issue: Walmarts have been known to increase the cost of policing across the nation. Harrisville, Utah’s Walmart required the hiring of two new police officers due to the increase in crime at the “super center.” Tuscon’s Walmart had over 2,000 CFSs in two years.

New 1st District Councilmember Lena Gonzalez also recognizes the problem, saying she is aware the LBPD has been working with Walmart and that “this issue of major importance will be addressed immediately” by her office.

Walmart has yet to respond to this story.

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