MESA, Ariz. -- Frustrated Mesa, Ariz., officials are preparing new security rules for convenience stores after saying operators have failed to reduce high crime levels at the city's most problematic shops, reported The East Valley Tribune. Industry officials have opposed the rules for more than a year, arguing some independent owners cannot afford $10,000 or more to comply with the rules.
But police said the stores are an excessive drain on resourceswith just the top 10 of them accounting for 46% of all c-store calls. Mesa has about 100 c-stores.
Police [image-nocss] said operators of the worst stores have refused their suggestions to reduce crime. Vice Mayor Kyle Jones said he was not eager to make new rules but felt the city cannot rely on the stores to police themselves. "Our back's against the wall," Jones told the newspaper.
Representatives with the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance opposed the rules, which include security cameras, better visibility, safety training and locking up beer during off-sale hours. Alliance president Tim McCabe asked for the city to work with the 10 worst stores and see what progress could be made. Alliance lobbyist Trish Hart said the industry has learned a lot about the issue in the last year and wants to improve safety. She argued surveillance systems could cost $5,000 to $10,000.
But Councilman Dave Richins said he did not believe the cost. He pulled up the price of surveillance systems on his mobile device, citing numbers that were less than $1,000. "I'm getting even more dug in about supporting this," Richins said. "Let's just do it."
Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh said industry officials are using a lobbying strategy by asking for delays to needlessly drag things out.
The city's Public Safety Committee has worked on the issue 13 months and has grown frustrated that some large stores have refused to cooperate, said the report.
Police agree most stores comply with most of the rules they have proposed, the report added.
Store owner Rana Singh Sodhi said his store has surveillance, but not enough capacity to store images for 30 days like police propose. Business at his family's three shops is down 30% to 40% recently, he told the paper, making it harder to pay for improvements. The proposed rules unfairly punish responsible store owners, he added, rather than the shops that have not done enough to improve safety. He figured his stores have five or fewer calls to police a year.
The city's rules would let owners apply for an exemption if it would be too costly to reconfigure their stores, the report said. The stores would need a security plan approved by police so the operation would comply with the safety goals.
Kavanaugh said many owner concerns were valid and that the redrafted rules will improve safety while minimizing the cost to independent store owners. "I think the measure that we have now takes into account many of the objections that we've heard over the course of time," he told the Tribune.
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