TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

St. Petersburg Convenience Store Owners, Police Discuss Safety

ADVERTISEMENT

By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 3, 2009

ST. PETERSBURG - If a closed-door meeting today is any indication, the police department and the city's convenience store owners are at loggerheads over which safety measures the stores should install to ward off robbers.

Police Chief Chuck Harmon, along with other police administrators, met with Sid Shah, the spokesman for the Asian American Convenience Stores Association, or AACSA, at the police station today.

Afterward, in separate interviews, Harmon and Shah, while emphasizing there was some common ground between them, acknowledged there were also some stark differences.

The AACSA continues to balk at the notion that there should be at least two people working in a convenience store at any one time, and that the stores should install bullet-proof glass at the counters to protect clerks, Shah said.

Requiring a second employee and the bullet-proof glass simply costs too much, Shah said. For instance, the bullet-proof enclosures cost $6,000 to $8,000, he said. In addition, the bullet-proof glass would make some of the interactions with customers less personal, he said.

And while the AACSA is amenable to buzzers – which a clerk or owner could use to stop threatening-looking customers from even entering a business – the organization differs with the chief as to when it should be in use.

Harmon would like the buzzers to be used from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., while the AACSA would like them to be used from midnight to 5 a.m., Harmon said.

"The problem here," said Shah, "is, say a group of kids some in. It's difficult to let one or two persons in but not the rest of them."

The discussion today comes at a time when the city's legal department is looking at drafting a city ordinance that would require mom and pop convenience stores to follow the same safety guidelines the state requires of corporate stores, such as those run by 7-Eleven.

The proposed ordinance is scheduled to be discussed at a Feb. 12 city council meeting.

Among other things, the state, through the Attorney General's Office, requires any convenience store that has been robbed to have two employees at the business at all time. But there is an exemption under state law for the kind of family businesses that belong to AACSA

Still, there was some agreement at the police administrators' meeting with Shah.

Owners agree to remove advertisements in their windows that prevent police officers outside from seeing what's going on inside, Shah said. And they agree to video surveillance cameras inside the store, and night-vision cameras outside, for the parking lots. They also agree to safes with time-delayed locks.

Mohamed Mased is the owner of a gas station and convenience store outside of which an undercover St. Petersburg police officer was shot and wounded recently, and he is on board with some of the measures discussed today.

Indeed, he took down signage today from his windows as police have been recommending for some time. And he agrees with the increased use of surveillance equipment.

"I think I am going to add one more camera on the outside," Mased said. "Then I can see from the monitor who is coming and going. I think that will make it more secure, you know."

Reporter Rod Challenger of WFLA News Channel 8 contributed to this report. Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT