Looking for information/education on issue.

[ICARRY2]

http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2011/05/27/20110527mesa-council-split-over-convenience-store-bill.html#reply22871401

For those of you in LE, how can a business owner be held responsibile/punished for calling the police to take care of people committing crime on the business property? Aren't they trying to do something about it by calling. In this case these are just convience stores selling everday items. It's not a nude bar, an adult book store, or pool hall where alcohol is being consumed. You get what you need and go home.

Isn't it the people who live in the area that are the problem? These guys just own a business. If they close up shop or are run out of business by the city, these people are just going to go down the street to buy what they need and will take their crime with them. How does that get rid of the problem/crime?

[Dragoon44]

They will do it claiming it is a safety issue. I would bet their rationale is that the cameras will "deter" crime.

All it actually does is make the local Govt. think they did something.

[ateamer]

Cameras don't deter crime in the slightest. All they do is sometimes make it a bit easier to solve the case afterward. Most convenience stores that have high crime rates on premises can attribute it to them selling cheap fortified liquor to chronic drunks, tiny ziplocks for "coin collectors", those tiny glass tubes with fake flowers in them and other paraphernalia. It's their own actions they took to attract the criminals' business.

[Patchman]

The 'regulars' will soon forget there are cameras and will continue to do their stupidity. But cameras can be really useful for after-the-facts investigations.

I'll also agree that a lot of stores, due to their own actions (or keeping a blind eye), attract the criminal's businesses.

Now I'm not sure about retroactively forcing stores to install cameras. I can see if new stores want a license to open, one requirement would be that they have camera(s). Same requirement for existing stores that are up for renewing their licenses.

[GunHo198]

Same thing with selling single cigerettes and taking wic checks illegally. In some instances they will trade cash for wic checks, or let them buy beer on There food stamp debt card. They have been cracking down on that hard here in the bay area.

[lawman800]

WIC/EBT for cigs and alcohol is nothing new here. Selling single cigarettes has died down a lot since the health codes have been enforced though.