INDIANAPOLIS —
An Indiana legislator is calling for mandatory safety regulations at convenience stores where late-night employees are at high risk for harm.
Rep. Ed Delaney, a Democrat from Indianapolis, said convenience stores that don’t invest in security measures to protect their workers have an unfair economic advantage over those that do.
Delaney on Tuesday made the call for state legislation, which would mandate safety measures at high-risk convenience stores, after a meeting at which state labor officials recommended some of those measures be adopted voluntarily.
Since 2006, six people have been killed and 27 people have been seriously injured in violent crimes at late-night stores in Indiana. Working at a convenience store has been deemed a “high-risk” occupation by the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration.
Delaney, a veteran legislator, said he’s likely to find opposition from convenience store owners who don’t want to spend additional dollars on safety measures ranging from panic alarms to bullet-proof barriers.
“I’ve been in the legislature long enough to know that people don’t like to take their wallet out to comply with any regulation,” Delaney said.
His comments came after the final meeting of the Late Night Retail Working Group — an advisory committee formed by Indiana Labor Commissioner Lori Torres following a series of shootings at Indiana convenience stores.
That advisory committee issued a report on Tuesday recommending a series of “best practice” safety measures that convenience stores voluntarily adopt to protect their workers. The long list of recommendations runs from low-cost items such as improved lighting to high-cost items such as bullet-proof enclosures that can cost up to $45,000.
The advisory committee recommended that high-risk convenience stores — defined as stores with two or more robberies or other violent crimes within a year — adopt the more stringent safety measures.
But as Torres noted at the meeting, “these are recommendations and nothing more.” The state labor department doesn’t have the power to mandate that convenience stores follow the report’s recommendations, she said.
The Late Night Retail Working Group included representatives of family members of convenience store workers injured or killed on the job. They’re pushing for mandatory safety regulations.
Theresia Whitfield, an advocate for those victims, said the recommendations issued by the working group are meaningless without accountability.
“Some folks just aren’t going to see the value in protecting their employees,” Whitfield said. “These recommendations are no good unless they’re followed through on and there’s accountability.”
Tim Rico, whose mother was killed in 2009 while working as a cashier on third shift at a Village Pantry in Indianapolis, said safety measures have to be mandated and not left to store owners.
Rico’s mother worked a store with a history of violent crime: It had been robbed 32 times since 2000. It wasn’t until Rico’s mother died that the store owner began upgrading security measures. And the owner did so only as part of a settlement agreement reached with the state labor department, which found Village Pantry failed to provide a safe workplace for its employees.
The Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association opposes mandatory safety regulations for convenience stores. Imus said store owners should determine what safety measures are best to adopt.
But DeLaney believes it’s critical for the state to step in. He favors legislation like that modeled on Florida’s law that requires convenience stores with a history of robberies and other violent crime to implement stronger safety measures. The Florida law allows those high-risk stores to choose from one of several options, ranging from closing their stores overnight to staffing them with armed guards.
“We have to have some minimum requirements,” said DeLaney. “The Florida law identifies the high-risk stores and puts them under a different and more strict regime. It’s not perfect but it’s a pretty good compromise.”
Maureen Hayden is the Indiana Statehouse bureau chief for CNHI, the parent company of the Tribune-Star. She can be reached at maureen.hayden@indianamediagroup.com.
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