What you need to know about Walmart: News from the Tampa Bay Times (12 time winner of Pulitzer Prize)

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Below are two excerpts from this article titled, "Thousands of police calls. You paid the bill."

     Police come to shoo away panhandlers, referee parking disputes and check on foul-mouthed teenagers.
     They are called to arrest the man who drinks a 98-cent iced tea without paying and capture the customer who joyrides on a motorized shopping cart.
     The calls eat up hours of officers’ time. They all start at one place:
     Walmart.
     Law enforcement logged nearly 16,800 calls in one year to Walmarts in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties, according to a Tampa Bay Times analysis. That’s two calls an hour, every hour, every day. [emphasis added]

[and. . .]

     Several local law enforcement officers also emphasized that all the hours spent at Walmart cut into how often they can patrol other neighborhoods and prevent other crimes.

On an interesting note, almost every time I go to the Walmart on 10th Ave. North what is parked there near the front doors? A police car or two from the Palm Springs PD. How much is that costing the city and are those taxpayers getting fewer patrols of neighborhoods as a result? An interesting question for an enterprising reporter, don't you think?