Walmart security cameras - who are they looking for?

So here's the deal. Yesterday I was at the Walmart in Spokane, WA. A good sized store, but I guess I've seen bigger. Anyway, I was standing out in the parking lot in front of my car waiting for my daughter to come out. (Teenagers!) I just happened to look up at the roof and noticed there seemed to be an inordinate number of security cameras pointing out into the parking lot. I counted 25 cameras - 25!

Then my paranoid little mind flipped into gear. We are all (well, maybe not ALL) worried about the government having the right to observe us in our everyday activities, and have faught against them installing cameras on our street corners. But they really wouldn't have to do this. I'm sure, with a little boardroom good old boy negotiation, they could just tap into the security cams at the stores and accomplish the same thing. Right?

25 cameras! and thats just on one side of the building!

They are tring to see what ever they can, People break in to cars in thier parking lots. Trying to make the world a safer place.

Oh yeah, I felt real safe with 25 cameras staring at me.....

The parking lot isn't big enough to require half that many. Just a thought about a way for the Gov to watch us even in the areas of the country that haven't already bought into the big-brother-knows-best-and-will-watch-to-make-sure-you-are-safe BS.

I feel walmart is very shady. There is something going on in the main HQ.

Originally posted by Montana
the Walmart in Spokane, WA.

Honestly, I have never been to Spokane but I know this town for a very long time. It's so often in the movies for whatever. It's just used as town name. Anything special with Spokane?

25 is indeed a lot. I thought it's already a bit too much in England but 25, hey it's nearly as much as you need to record a video for matrix-effects

Edit: Thanks for the answer about Spokane!

[edit on 13-9-2004 by shoo]

Nothing really special, about 250,000 pop with the burbs. Fairchild AF base co-located with the airport, but they just do tankers now that the b-52s are gone.

Typical midsized US city.

Well, i work for Walmart. The reasoning behind the numbers of cameras is 1. loss prevention. It might not be possible to get tag numbers, facial shots from one camera so they have others at different angles to get the information. 2. To protect against frivolous lawsuits. Lots of people (more than i thought) like to try and stage accidents. One camera shows a guy tripping and falling over a box behind a car, other camera from different angle show box didn't get there till after he fell.

yeah, but 25?!?

it's only about 5 acres. That's more cameras per square foot than political activists! Not including third parties. They were all lined up along the front of the roof, not spread out around the parking lot. If they were worried about camera angles they'd put them out on the light poles pointing in different directions.

It seems more likely to be a head game. "Look how many camera's we have, We Care! Would like to know how many were even hooked up.

Still, to get back to my question, wouldn't this be an easy way for the Gov to expand their surveilance network? Just hook into all these security camera setups. Who would know?

I agreee that 25 cameras is excessive, but I don't think they're up to no good with them..

after all a lot of people use the Wal-Mart parking lots while traveling... for rest that is... maybe by using all those cameras they cover the entire lot simutaneously ???

I actually slept in a wal-mart lot... 2 years ago while driving from ohio to missouri... had golfed all day, came home did the yard work, she was anxious to get on the road, drove for 10 hours and needed sleep, pulled off an exit, all the hotels were full, so saw the wal-mart and pulled in for a couple of hours sleep.

I think they're filming a reality show on how husbands sit in the lot going nuts for hours wondering how come its taking so long to get a loaf of bread and carton of soda. And then once the frustration is at its boiling point, they have her come out with three carts and zoom to the close up for the expression!

Who needs HAARP when we have Wal-Mart?

Now thats a REAL reality show!!!!

Although teenagers are worse, IMHO!

I really don't think 25 security cameras are excessive. Snap judgments are being made by posters that 25 cameras are too many when they do not seem to have any security experience or inside security knowledge. The cameras are probably zoomed into one small location on the parking lot so that when something does happen the camera record close up details and not some wide angle shot of the entire parking lot. I own a publishing company. I have 10 working security cameras set up to monitor the outside of my buildings and my place isn't 1/5 the size of a Walmart parking lot. And even with 10 cameras there are still blind spots.

If you guys are goign to go all paranoid on yourselves lol .... then you better go ahead and get rid of your cell phones. Because they can be activated any where to hear anything that is going on ... =-) ... Thanks to the internet ... so ... Why be paranoid ... Huh people ? If someone wants you dead .... all they would have to do is do it noone is safe, really if you want to be totally honest with yourself noone ... Not even me ..

YA... OK...

You'll fit in just fine here at ATS if you think that is a conspiracy...

"I feel walmart is very shady. There is something going on in the main HQ." ...Ok there inspector gadget.

Remember the little girl who was kidnapped and killed in Florida several months ago?

Her low-life killer probably would be still walking the streets had it not been for the cameras posted at the car-wash where he was video-taped abducting the girl.

If people weren't so damned mean, and criminally-minded in the first place, we wouldn't need any cameras to place the public under surveillance, now would we?

Or locks on our doors and the police and gun permits and...etc.

I don't like to defend Wal-Mart but generally the cameras that they and other stores use are pretty shoddy overall. There are attemted kidnappings of children and even hit and run accidents all the time at those stores and having as many cameras as possible can help to get licence plate numbers, vehicle descriptions etc.

If you only have one camera there is a good chance it won't be close enough to what happened or it could be pointing in the wrong direction at the time of the incident. They also apprehend a lot of shop lifters outside the store since they can't do anything until the perp actually leaves. A lot of these bozos have claimed abuse from the in house security in the past and have actually won damages despite being punished for the original offense. Sounds screwy I know, but it happens.

Its their property no matter what though, so I guess they can have as many cameras as they want. I worked as an undercover security guard for a Mervyns in college so I know a few more reasons why they are probably so camera'd up.



[edit on 13-9-2004 by Weller]

I would expect no less than 25 outdoor cameras from Wal-Mart...it's not as if the money they spend matters! The 5 benefactors of Sam Walton each got $20 billion when he passed away...

I have friends whose houses have more than 12 cameras on the outside...it's all about paranoia - you feel it when they're on you, they feel it when they're not...you got the money and you can have a thousand cameras filming the same speck of dirt if you want...

I have a close friend who used to be a part of the loss protection team for Dillard's. It was her job to chase this stupid kids who stole from the store and to detain them in the parking lot - she once had a gun pointed at her head and many times had knives thrown at her and her co-worker actually got sliced across the face...if they were to flee the scene, the camera could identify their appearence and their car/plates.

Sure there's probablly some no-good security guards out there who follow all the hot girls around the store....but for the most part they have that many for their and your protection.

Like in Museums many of the camera's that you see are "dummys" they are there to think that you are being watched.They are sometime more effective than an armed guard.

I remember reading a post/topic about Wal-Mart here on ATS, the gist of it being that all Wal-Mart checkout and credit sliders were linked together to a mainframe in Arkansas, near an airport and freght center owned by Chinese and Foreign Interests.

When you use credit at Wally World, notice your receipt says "Thank You- YOUR NAME HERE". all your info is supposedly collected,monitored, and your purchases charted, and now RFID Tagged.

And what better place to count bees than at the "Hive".
Heck, it's pobably cheaper to film EVERY PARKED CAR at a Wal-Mart Nationwide than it is to keep track of cars moving along interstates in real time.

And.. might Ipoint out that Costco, Target and Sears do not have mega-cameras OUTSIDE. Inside, they use the same Smoked-Glass Overheads the Casinos Use, basic indoor theft protection, no more.

But the aforementioned retailers aren't owned by Asian Secret Police, are they?
Lastly, did y'all know that Wal-Mart owns J.B Hunt Trucking and I believe Roadway and CSX Trucking I just recently read a post somewhere about how the customer is bombarded with microwave and flouescent technology designed to numb the brain catatonic-zombie must shop and buy all items on rollback sale..rollback sale on every humongous aisle of numb consumerist bliss, brought to you by economic foes from afar, quietly buying up your countryside..and Filming YOUR EVERY MOVE, TATTOO, and CHILD.

How about the cameras outside some stores that point toward main roads, subway stops, and rail stations- none of which are aimed at the parking lots?