GALVESTON, Texas – The call goes out, a police officer responds to a crime. In Galveston over 650 times this year, that call for help, that call for police service came from the same place, from the Walmart store on Seawall Boulevard.
More than 50 percent of the time it's for shoplifting.
Galveston Police Chief Henry Porretto says all those calls to Walmart are draining his department of valuable manpower and keeping officers from responding to
higher-priority crimes against the citizens of Galveston, who may be the victims of robbery or burglary or assault.
"It's definitely taking police off the streets of our neighborhoods," Porretto said.
Local 2 Investigates crunched the numbers and found that in 2014 Galveston Police were called to Walmart 653 times, an average of nearly two visits per day every day of the year.
In League City, the League City Police Department responded to 577 calls at Walmart. The Kemah Police Department was dispatched to Walmart 723 times for service.
To try to reduce those numbers, League City Police are now deploying a new high-tech crime fighting tool.
It's a 30-foot-high, movable observation, surveillance tower, complete with four mounted cameras.
Police have used the tower to thwart criminals at Walmart and capture crimes on camera.