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Walmart representatives to meet with Pinellas law enforcement following Times investigation

 
Largo Police officer Kenny Hastings visits a Walmart on Missouri Avenue while on patrol. [Jim Damaske/Tampa Bay Times]
Largo Police officer Kenny Hastings visits a Walmart on Missouri Avenue while on patrol. [Jim Damaske/Tampa Bay Times]
Published May 26, 2016

Walmart has reached out to law enforcement in Tampa Bay to set up meetings and discuss the high number of calls officers take at its stores.

The conversations follow a Tampa Bay Times investigation about police service at Walmarts across the region. Representatives from the Arkansas-based company have reached out to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and the Tampa and St. Petersburg police departments to schedule meetings.

St. Petersburg Assistant Police Chief Jim Previtera said he was contacted Tuesday afternoon by representatives from Corcoran & Johnston, a lobbying firm with an office in Lutz. They told him Walmart officials wanted to sit down and talk to police leaders.

"They would like to meet with us and discuss the issues that were highlighted in the Times story," Previtera said. "They're obviously concerned about the relationship with law enforcement from what I took from the conversation, and we are willing to speak with them and see what we can do to improve the situation."

Previtera said he, the Police Department's general counsel, several majors and a public information officer plan to meet with Walmart representatives this afternoon. He was not sure who from the company would attend.

A call to Michael Corcoran, a partner at the lobbying firm, was returned by a Walmart spokeswoman, Deisha Barnett, on Wednesday.

Barnett said the company has scheduled several meetings in the next few weeks with Tampa Bay law enforcement officials, but she would not provide specifics on the agencies involved.

"These meetings are a part of a concerted effort to make investments, and deploy the right processes and procedures needed to meet our customer and associate expectations of a safe and enjoyable shopping experience," she said.

The meetings follow a Times investigation earlier this month that found 53 local Walmarts accounted for nearly 16,800 police calls in just one year. The total didn't include more than 6,000 preventive patrols that officers made on their own at the stores. Ten agencies responded to individual Walmarts more than to anywhere else.

READ: POLICE LOG THOUSANDS OF CALLS AT WALMART. YOU PAID THE BILL.

The police calls to Walmart took up hours of time that law enforcement officials said could have been used patrolling neighborhoods and preventing other crimes. Many businesses accounted for far fewer police calls than individual Walmart stores, including nearby Targets.

Tampa police spokesman Steve Hegarty said Chief Eric Ward has also been invited to meet with Walmart representatives, and Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gual­tieri said a government relations firm called his office to schedule a meeting with him on behalf of Walmart. A date had not been set as of Wednesday morning.

"I'm willing to talk to them. I don't know exactly what they want," the sheriff said.

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Gualtieri said he had "mixed feelings" about police activity at the stores. Walmart, he said, has a right to call police if people are shoplifting.

"It's still a crime," he said. "They're getting ripped off for minor things, but (they are) still a business."

But the Times found that thousands of calls were related to nuisances that didn't rise to a level of a crime, including calls for disruptive teens, suspicious activity and parking lot disputes.

"They should call us, but they shouldn't call us for every little thing," Gualtieri said. "You don't go to the doctor every time you sneeze, and they shouldn't be calling police every time somebody has a minor misstep."

Last week, political officials in Hillsborough, Tampa and Largo said they would explore possible solutions to the high volume of police calls to Walmarts.

Barnett told the Times then that the company would look for ways to improve its work with local authorities.

"We are confident in the work done so far," she said last week in a statement. "But we know we can do better, and we will."

Times staff writer Eli Murray contributed to this report. Contact Laura C. Morel at lmorel@tampabay.com and Zachary T. Sampson at zsampson@tampabay.com.