HomeMy WebLinkAbout1974 09-10 Maplewood Mall adds to police load DISPATCH Maplewood Mall
tO police loa
...,,d,,,t, ,c ,
By Jean Haskell i et 74 ° # ` Schaller hopes his force
Staff Writer will have tie for the real
On a busy shopping day, V k problems — the burglar
the Maplewood Mall hasalarms that are not false
e n o u g h customers and and the auto thefts that
employes to equal the actually occur. •
populations of some TwinH o m a r t officials and
Cities suburbs. ,f • store owners have been
Like any community, very cooperative,Schaller
the m a 1 1 's population - and Hagen said, even
causes or incw s problems though some of the po-
which require police help ; ;
•lice s suggestions for bet-
Merchandise is shoplifted, s: ;.
people become ill and in- SCHALLER beter internalcosecurity could
jured, cars and bicycles re ly o.contractsHomartwith cur-
jured,
are reported stolen, bad D e p u t y Police Chief, private,ently oa
checks are passed, traffic Thomas Hagen met wit • riy forceplainclothes l poisecu-
backs up, accidents hap- about 80 store owners and inicing, n for internal the
and some of the
pen. managers last week and larger stores have their
"You kind of set up a discussed such things as own floorwalkers.
city in itself," according handling shoplifters,using After the mall has been
to Maplewood Public Safe- alarm systems and pro- open about a year, Schall-
t.y D i r e c t o r Richard viding adequate internal er said he will have the
Schaller. one of the per- security. Hagen said he statistics t o determine
sons responsible for pro- expects such efforts now just how much more po-
viding police help for theby the police department• •lice work has resulted
newly opened 100-store will have a long-range from the mall.
mall. • benefit in reducing the po- • He expects that some
There have been no ma- lice workload, existing problems are at-
jor incidents at the mall, tributable to newness and
but, Schaller a c k n o w 1- With burglar alarm sys- may decline. Shoplifters
edged in an interview last tems, for instance, one for example, have the at-
week, the relatively mi- small store had three titude now that, "Here's a
nor, day-to-day incidents false alarms in two days, new field. Let's go pick
are putting heavy de- according to police re- the corn,"he said.
mands on the city's police ports. The police time However, new' stores
department. wasted in responding to still are opening and new
"We knew this was false alarms could be cut problems probably will
coming," Schaller said substantially if employes develop, and the Maple-
about the added workload: learn how to use the wood police sill will be
Three officers were added alarms properly or if mal- faced with a big task in
to the force last year, functioning alarms are providing increased ser-
partly in anticipation of corrected. vices using limited funds.
the mall's opening, and A n o t h e r example of
Schaller expects to add wasted police-time has
more next year. been in reports of auto
However,because of tax thefts from the mall's
levy limitations, Maple- parking lot.Since the mall
wood may have difficulty, opened, police have an-
providing
mproviding enough police to swered 40 to 50 auto theft
maintain the,present level calls which have been un-
of service to the mall and founded; shoppers simply
'the rest of the city. became confused in the
Schaller said he would huge parking lot, could
be very reluctant to re- not find their cars and as-
duce services but may be •sumed they were stolen.
forced into it. He would Schaller said the mall's
rather try to prevent po- owner, the Homart De-
lice problems at the mall velopment Co., is now col-
from becoming an unman- or coding entrance doors
ageable number. so shoppers can remem-
To do that, the Maple- ber where they entered
wood police are trying to the building and where
alert store owners and their cars are parked.The
e m p I o y o,s to potential police department also
troubles and make them wants the company to col-
less vulnerable. • or code the parking lot or
"Often." Schaller said, install some other kind.4-
!The people aren't.famil- signs to help customerso-
with some of the prob- cate their cars.
le they're going to By eliminating or recluse
'{"�f
t
y 4
gt 4
!3 yygp :
Q
-,,,.,-'. -.--.4)), lr..... ' '4,00001'..'..- ',..': --'%''''' .....:111.1.11..44''''::"..'''s1.1^....1.)1"..,1:.1.:-1....,....:1:1:'..'".'.'...1. . "I''al:%7:.**''''-'":"' ' :
'""'•••r•'''•'''... .. '''''''''''''''''''';':'•--•..-..'„,'
w-•
r
.
'j X �.
3 D. taF
r �4
• {
}
A '4k .� ` �. ��