Portage businesses that make “excessive” calls to the police department will start getting hit with fines, if an ordinance adopted by the City Council last week goes through.
Aside from calls for ambulances, welfare checks and motor vehicle accidents, all businesses that call police for help more than 10 times in a calendar month will get hit with $250 fines for each call, and businesses with more than 20 calls will be charged $500 per call, according to the proposal.
Businesses that exceed five calls per month will get notices from the police alerting them to the threshold, according to the proposed ordinance.
Frequent calls from businesses, especially ones that do not have their own security forces or hire off-duty police officers, take police officers off the streets, a number of council members said.
“Some of these places, like Walmart, don’t even have their own security,” said Councilwoman Sue Lynch, D-At large. “We are their security. We’re paying for their security.”
The proposal now will go to Mayor James Snyder’s desk. Snyder did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
While council members and Clerk-Treasurer Chris Stidham sparingly mentioned the Walmart store, 6087 U.S. 6, the retail giant has posed a number of challenges to city police, according to Chief Troy Williams.
“I think it’s a huge issue,” said Williams, who said he has contacted Walmart officials multiple times to discuss the amount of calls local police get from the store. “That store is the single greatest location for arrests in the city.”
Walmart officials could not be reached for comment.
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According to Williams, there were 85 arrests and 510 calls, for an average of more than 42 calls monthly, at the Portage Walmart in 2017. In a letter to city officials, Williams wrote the city saw a rise in theft and stolen property calls that “can be directly attributed to Walmart store No. 2544.”
Whether the store hires off-duty Portage police officers or a private security firm, the store needs to do more with security, Williams said.
“It’s important the loss prevention people are successful, but, there needs to be more prevention, so we’re not unfairly taxing our resources when we have a whole city to protect,” he said. “There’s increased (illegal) activity there, but, our manpower is still the same, so we need (Walmart) to be better at prevention.”
Passing an excessive calls ordinance can be tricky, because thieves talk to each other and figure out which stores to hit and when to avoid being arrested, said Portage resident Lloyd Williams, who described himself as a former loss prevention officer.
“You’d be amazed,” Williams told the council. “(Thieves) know. They talk. The crooks are going to know if you’re gonna call the police or not.”
According to Porter County records, Walmart’s 2018 property tax bills will total about $308,000, with about $133,207 going to the City of Portage and the city’s Redevelopment Commission.
Michael Gonzalez is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.