HOUSTON – Walmart stores top the list of places to which police officers and sheriff’s deputies get called across the metro area, according to KPRC Channel 2’s review of call records from a dozen area law enforcement agencies.
Walmart stores in Houston, Harris County, Katy, Galveston and League City experience more calls for service than any place else in their areas.
Houston police responded to 1,273 calls at the Walmart at North Freeway and Crosstimbers from January 2015 to June 2016.
At the Walmart at South Wayside and Gulf Freeway, police responded to 1,163 calls In the same time frame.
The top reason police respond is shoplifting.
"Shoplifters are going in there to steal something they can sell somewhere else to get cash so they can buy whatever they choose to buy," Houston Police Union President Ray Hunt told Channel 2 investigative reporter Jace Larson.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office responded to nearly 700 shoplifting cases at the Walmart off FM 1960.
In Galveston, police were called to 345 theft cases at the store on Seawall Boulevard.
Hunt said one shoplifting call can tie up an officer for five hours.
"That's one less person who (is) doing any kind of proactive policing,” Hunt said. "That may increase your response time on your higher priority calls because you have officers tied up."
Hunt said one solution is to make shoplifters pay for an officer's time, just like people who get convicted of drunk driving.
"Most of those people bond out of jail. If they are able to bond out of jail, they have money to pay somebody,” he said. "Some of the people are professional shoplifters and this is all they do for a living."
Walmart says it had its own programs to target shoplifters.
"We do see some stores that are on highways that are targeted for organized retail crime," said Eric Jones, Walmart’s senior manager of corporate communications.
Jones said Walmart often hires off-duty police officers.
They can do all the paperwork needed to arrest someone, but on the store's dime.
Walmart also started in May placing employees right at the front doors.
"In talking with my team in Texas, they say they have already seen a very positive impact from having the more-at-the-door program for just these few months that it's been rolled out," she said.
In Arlington, where the program has been going longer, calls to police are down 40 percent, Jones said.
To cut down on calls to police departments for first-time shoplifters who steal items valued at less than an undisclosed amount, Walmart has a program called Restorative Justice.
Instead of calling police, Walmart allows first-time offenders a chance to go through an education program done at the shoplifter’s home. Jones could not provide numbers on how often the program is used in Houston.
It's not just Walmart locations with tons of shoplifting calls. Stores at the Deerbrook Commons called out the Humble Police Department 600 times. And shoplifters kept police busy at Katy Mills Mall and First Colony Mall.
If you have a tip for investigative reporter Jace Larson, email or text him at jlarson@kprc.com or 832-493-3951.