Legislation Can Reduce Store Homicides

by Kenneth Wayne Yarbrough

Convenience store employees, who are not trained how to correctly handle incidents of robbery or shoplifting, risk being killed or seriously injured, according to advocates of crime prevention and safety training legislation.

Christian Ribeiro Giambrone, an 18-year-old Boston, Massachusetts convenience store employee, who received no crime prevention and safety training, was fatally stabbed on February 16, 2004 after chasing a shoplifter outside the store. Giambrone is not alone.

Based on past numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it's estimated that over 700 convenience store workers, particularly cashiers, will be murdered during robberies this year in the United States. Over 600 of these victims will succumb to gun shot wounds and another 100 will die of stab wounds.

A convenience store cashier job is the tenth most dangerous occupation in the United States, according to the US Labor Department, which classifies a convenience store cashier job as being more risky than that of a fisherman or a firefighter.

Following Giambrone's death, a survey found 74 percent of convenience store employees in Greater Boston had not received any training to deal with incidents of robbery or shoplifting. Equally disturbing, 33 percent of those surveyed said they, like Giambrone, would chase a shoplifter.

Some argue that the US government should enact strict legislation, mandating crime prevention and safety training measures to reduce the number of retail workplace homicides. But Retail Association lobbyists in Washington DC strongly oppose legislation that threatens to decrease retail profitability.

A 1999 senate bill that would have increased retail crime prevention training (SB5779) was killed in the House Appropriations Committee after political leaders conceded to pressure from the Retail Association. The bill would have raised the conditions for which storeowners would have to provide crime prevention and safety training to employees. Crime prevention training is currently required only if a store is open from 11:00 P.M. to 6:00 A.M.

Some cities have enacted local crime prevention and safety training ordinances, which in many cases have proven greatly beneficial.

A 1986 city ordinance in Gainesville, Florida, for instance, requires two clerks to be on duty during graveyard shifts. The controversial safety measure brought about a 78 percent decline in convenience store robberies in Gainesville.

The state of Florida, in 1992, experienced a 34 percent decline in convenience store robberies after it passed a similar ordinance, requiring two clerks.

Houston, Texas, under the leadership of its Chief of Police, Clarence O'Neal Bradford, implemented a crime-prevention education campaign in 1999, which trained convenience store and gas station owners how to prevent robberies. As a result, robberies decreased by 25 percent and the number of retail workplace homicides decreased from 42 to 24 in the year 2000.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 requires employers to provide a safe working environment for employees. Our elected officials must mandate and provide funding for public retail outlets, such as convenience stores and gas stations, to provide crime prevention and safety training for employees.

Christian Giambrone would still be alive today had he been taught one of the most important safety rules: peacefully relinquish whatever robbers or shoplifters demand. A human life is worth far more that any product on the shelf or any amount of cash in the register.

Kenneth Wayne Yarbrough is a legislative writer in the City of Boston, a certified emergency medical technician for the State of Massachusetts and a certified COBRA with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.