Darien Official Wants Walmart Calls Curbed

DARIEN, IL – Darien Alderman Eric Gustafson says he is concerned officers are being called to the local Walmart too often for retail theft calls.

At City Council meetings, Gustafson has said he wants Darien to consider an ordinance similar to one in East Lampeter Township, Pennsylvania.

In East Lampeter, a store must pay $250 for each shoplifting call after 10 times in a calendar month.

Gustafson and Alderman Tom Chlystek said they are concerned that calls to Walmart are taking officers away from other matters. They point to the self-checkout lanes at Walmart, where most of the thefts happen.

The Darien Police Department, however, said handling retail theft calls takes little time.

Last week, East Lampeter Township Police Chief Stephen Zerbe responded to Gustafson's request for information on the calls to the local Walmart.

In 2015, the year before East Lampeter's excessive retail theft ordinance, township police responded to 628 calls at Walmart, resulting in 394 arrests.

A year later, the township answered 296 calls, leading to 200 arrests.

In the most recent year, East Lampeter's Walmart called the police 262 times, resulting in 115 arrests.

Before the ordinance, Zerbe said in the email, local officers would regularly respond to Walmart three or four times a shift when the store's loss prevention officers were working.

"It was due to this call volume and the prospect of any other large retail or box store creating a similar draw on our police department resources that led to the creation of the ordinance and its passing," Zerbe said.

In a story in December 2021, Patch reported that Darien police responded to the local Walmart 309 times since the beginning of the year – 1.8 percent of the department's 16,962 total calls for service. In other words, one of every 50 calls on average is for Walmart.