“We need to do something about it,” the Gwinnett County solicitor’s chief investigator Travis Gatson declared. “Enough is enough.” And his boss the county solicitor vows that if the Walmart store in Lilburn won’t clean up its act and report shoplifters for arrest, the company will be taken to court.
Incredibly, records show about 70 percent of the city’s shoplifting calls happened at that one store because Walmart managers want employees to look the other way when stealing occurs. That’s why Gwinnett County Solicitor Brian Whiteside wrote a letter to Walmart insisting that its stores need to be held accountable if they can’t control crime.
Atlanta’s WSB-TV reported that at the Lilburn store, managers installed extra security camera’s on poles in the parking lot. Yet Whiteside says, “The cameras are for after the fact. We want crime deterred before the fact.” That’s why Whiteside is threatening to begin citing Walmart for nuisance violations. “We are asking that Walmart have certified off-duty police officers to add a deterrent of protection,” Whiteside said.
Through open records requests, WSB-TV reported on statistics from calls for police to 11 different Gwinnett County Walmart stores. In Lawrenceville, two stores alone accounted for 846 calls in the past year. Of those calls, 224 for were for theft. For the report, log on to: https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/gwinnett-county/metro-prosecutor-has-warning-for-walmart-cut-crime-or-get-out/977449955
