Behind The Blue Door: What you should know about Walmart surveilance polocies

beautyndissonance
reply to post by Bedlam

 

This is all a lie. Walmart does not openly give customer data to intelligent agencies. Walmart will only turn over surveillance footage of a customer if a crime was commuted by that customer on Walmart property. This entire thread and these butt hurt former associates are spewing so much scuttlebutt it's hilarious. Walmart isn't above the law, and the countless lawsuits that we lose annually prove that. We actually pride ourselves in doing whatever we can to protect customer privacy. Cameras are 100% for shrink purposes. Also, the guy below that said he was followed after work for having a relationship with a coworker is complete garbage. There is no policy that says that co workers cannot date as long as they are not in a direct reporting relationship to one another, this is the policy with most major company to deter favoritism. I really hope that most people don't actually believe that this kind of stuff goes on. Yes walmart has loss prevention associates that work "undercover" to prevent shrink, and that helps keep costs down, but they don't track anyone and definitely do not violate countless privacy laws by openly submitting customer information to government agencies.

I'm going to have to agree with you on pretty much everything. This thread is filled with so much BS that I can smell it through my monitor. There is no way that WM can access your bank or Visa statements or have the Walmart rent-a-cops follow you home (we really need an eye roll icon). Perhaps there was an obsessed fellow employee with a crush that got caught and made up a story to cover the embarrassment of it, but I really doubt that Walmart had their employee followed.

As for evil Walmart having cameras...has anyone looked around wherever they are in public? You are pretty much under surveillance as soon as you walk out the door. It's actually pretty smart to have cameras installed in your business - not just to catch thieves and other criminals, but also to protect yourself from idiotic lawsuits. We live in a country where you can sue McDonalds because you spilled their coffee on yourself!

Yes I know that Walmart is probably a crappy place to work, they pay crappy wages and employees aren't treated like the little princesses that they think they are... but the majority of this post is due to someone's little feelings being hurt. Pretty much the same everywhere, the new guy does the work while others watch... but here we are turning it into some whiny "I'm being ignored by the popular kids" high school crap.

Like you said, this just boils down to someone who is overly sensitive and "butt-hurt".

introV
This thread makes me want to go to Walmart and walk around till people follow me.

Aleister

introV
This thread makes me want to go to Walmart and walk around till people follow me.

Same here. Like I said earlier, I sometimes walk with a friend for exercise inside the box stores when the weather is bad, and now WalMart will surely become the next destination. Would be a hoot to have three or four people spaced out, and then do a 20 to 30 minute fast-walk up and down the aisles (I'm very careful of people on those walks), from the front to the back of the store, into the next aisle, all the way across. Must drive those LP people nuts when people do that.

How sweet of you two... going into a place of business to intentionally f@#k with the employees who are getting the shaft already from the company they work for.

Yeah, that will teach Walmart a lesson. Brilliant.

reply to post by tallcool1

tallcool1

How sweet of you two... going into a place of business to intentionally f@#k with the employees who are getting the shaft already from the company they work for.

Yeah, that will teach Walmart a lesson. Brilliant.

edit on 1-4-2014 by tallcool1 because: left out quote

Take it easy killer. I'm not trying to teach anyone a lesson. Merely interested to see if I get followed around by undercover employees.

reply to post by Joki42


I was an LP for over 2 years and while I didn't work for Wal Mart am fairly familiar with their policies after meeting a few of them when I was heading up the organized retail crime for my district. This was a group of LPs and managers from different stores that had contacts with each other, local law enforcement and Feds. I would like to weigh in with my experience.

I swore that I would NEVER work for Walmart, but times are hard and they seamed to be the only company I could get a job with. I was hired for the sole purpose of being unknown to anyone else in the company, save for the managers and fellow LP's. This was so I could monitor the employees without them knowing.

I'm having a real hard time believing you were hired to be anonymous. The job doesn't lend itself to anonymity when you're correcting behaviors. Every store I've been in with LP they were either managers or treated like it. We had to constantly correct behavior and contact cashiers. Everything from lockup strategy to till audits. Plus if you make one stop everyone is going to know who you are. Also that you're following around the manager for 8 hours a day...

During my training. I was to follow a senior LP who would instruct me in polocies and techniques. I was not allowed to talk with anyone or try to stop a shoplifter. If I saw anything suspicious I would relay it to my supervisor. I spent six months walking the floors unable to do anything while my super and the other LP's hung out at the discount video bin chatting for hours.

This is standard everywhere. You have to have a certain amount of stops before you're allowed to do it by yourself. We needed 15 and I got that in 3 weeks.

Well, I was ridiculed for letting him get away. Everyone blamed me for it even though there was nothing I could have done to stop him anyways. The two LP's told the head manager that it was my fault the guy got away, so I was pretty pissed.

Yeah, um it sounds like you were pretty awful at this and that's why you weren't released after 6 months and they were trying to get rid of you. It happens. Some people are bad at it. I was decent, but there were some guys who could pop a few people a day.

Walmart holds that everyone is equal. No profiling. When you walk through the doors you recieve the same treatment as everyone else. BS.

This is somewhat accurate. We looked at shoes and cars for instance and any teenager would get watched. It's really more body language and watching the product though.

There are 5 steps you have to follow to detain someone. See them enter the area. See them select the merchandise. See them conceal the merchandise. Maintain 100% observation. See the person walk past all points of sale without offering payment. Approach. I don't think Wal Mart allows hands on, but we did. If the person tried to run or fight we were allowed to use 'reasonable' force and cuff them.

If an employee is "caught" shopping at another store they are put under investigation by LP for possible fraud. Employees never know they are being investigated.

I don't know Wal Mart policy on this but I freaking doubt it. That many people would be impossible to investigate at once. Of course they don't know they're being investigated.

When you shop and use a credit card or debit that info is stored in a data base accessible to all LP's at everystore. If you are suspected of fraud or theft, even just for shopping somewhere other than Walmart when you have a discount, the LP manager is able to access your bank statements and monitor where you shop and how you use your money. I've watched this process many times.

All large stores have this. They can't check you're bank statements though. They can only see purchases you make within the company. It ties in to your drivers license, checks, and credit cards. This is also tied into the camera system. So say I see a guy returning something expensive. I go into the computer and pull his ID number. Then I can watch anytime he's returned something or purchased something at my store or any other in the country. You get a list of transactions and video sorted by dates.

reply to post by tallcool1


Yep. I'm not messing with anyone, they have the choice to follow me or not, and get some good exercise in the process. By your logic nobody who has read this thread can ever walk into a WalMart again, because they will know that they are being watched and so, if they take more time than it takes to walk up, pick up an item, and go pay for it, they will be messing with the employees. And besides...spoil sport!

reply to post by Aleister


What? By my logic...? Personally, I couldn't give a crap if I'm being watched by a camera. I know I'm not doing anything wrong.

I was merely pointing out how it is kinda douche-y to purposely mess with someone that you claim to have empathy for. You hate how Walmart treats their employees, so to "teach them" you f@#k with the employees? That would be like me smacking our receptionist because the owner pi$$ed me off.

Thank you for your fascinating experience from working at Walmart. I knew they watched you but I wasn't aware they had men
on the ground surveying the shoppers. I figured someone would sit at the camera room and watch the cameras on monitors.
Pretty cool.

reply to post by Another_Nut


I completely agree with you. I don't work at Walmart (I know a couple people who do) but shop there quite often. ( I'm not paying $5 for something I can get for $2 at Walmart) and I have never had any bad experiences. The employees were courteous at least, though a few did not have a clue about things, but you get that everywhere you shop.

The friends I have that do work there have never had any of the issues so many people on here claim they did, or that they heard of happening to others. Heck, Friday nights one of the local bars is full of Walmart employees having a good time together.

Or who knows, I'm in Ohio and maybe Walmart acts a little more civilized here

As a former Walmart employee, who has read their policies for everything multiple times, 99% of what the OP said is BS.

The only part you're right about is that we weren't allowed to chase them if they make it into the parking area, BUT if they stay in the parking area you can then call the police THEN go out when they arrive. Cart pushers are actually allowed since theybare already out there (

TorqueyThePig
reply to post by kosmicjack

 

I don't recall saying that the LPO detained the suspect. I will have to review my previous post. That being said, what happens a majority of the time is the LPO confronts them and informs them of the situation. He then asks them if they will follow him to his office and wait for the police. Most of the time they are cooperative and comply with his request.

Never leave where they detain you and go to the store LP office.

First if you have not taken anything you want to stay in sight of the security camera where they stopped you.

You do not want to walk to there LP office as you will be walking through gaps in there security camera system.

If they take you to there LP office and find nothing they will then claim you passed off the property to a another suspect they did not see.

Or you got rid of the item.

They can still trespass you from store but it has a lot less power in court.

I am a ex federal security officer that has moonlighted as LP
I also have repaired and installed security camera systems at wally world.
Most stores have only about 25% of the cameras working and a number of camera mounts are empty.
www.cepro.com...

A security camera watcher can only watch so many cameras and will burn out quick.

One town i lived in they caught 3 wally world LPO shoplifting from the local Kmart.
they thought they had learned all the tricks from the shoplifters they had caught.
but another LPO from wally world overheard there plans and warned Kmart's LPOs

Yea walmart was my first job in high school and most of the camera balls were empty minus the ones by all the registers and in the electronics section. They do have people "observing" customers. They are always understaffed because they're cheap bastards that dont give people hours. I've been sent to other departments to do stuff for that reason. Unions are the anti-Christ in Walmart. My store was brand new at the time. We stocked the entire store when they built it. I wasn't "awake" back then but I did notice some things that I thought were definitely wrong...

One question. Can you tell me why the heck I set off the theft detectors at the door half the time when I walk in? It happens about 50% of the time. Most of the time it is only on entering, not leaving. I have checked every thing in my purse (no cell phone gave, that up a few month back) Nothing I am wearing came from there. I can't figure it out for the life of me and this happens at multiple wal-marts.

Possible your shoes did not get demagnetized, when you bought them.

Does not matter what store the shoes came from.

I too have to call complete BS on most of your story. I am what you call the 'head LP' manager at a Wal-Mart store, and I hear crap from people like you all the time. You think you get treated unfairly (whether true or not) and then you exaggerate or outright lie about the experience. I've been with Wal-Mart for over 8 years with more than half that time in the Asset Protection (LP) Division, I've apprehended hundreds of people for shoplifting and "interviewed" and terminated dozens of employees for theft. And while I'm not the company's biggest fan, the experience you told does not represent what we do in LP. I'm sorry that you probably didn't work with the greatest people, but get over it. We can't access bank accounts, and we don't hire people for the sole purpose of "spying" on employees. The ones we do hire aren't kept secret from other associates. And I know of no program that lets us check up on where our associates are shopping outside of Wal-Mart.

marg6043
Why people are so surprised at what corporate businesses can do with peoples information?

Is call Data mining, right now the NSA does it all the time, or people have forgotten about that scandal soo soon

Remember that the NSA while working under the government is mostly run by private interest companies under contracting.

So just remember that this days data mining is very profitable, most corporate businesses are doing it.

Just another day in the land of the freak, I mean free.

I could add some dirt on Walmart but it seems everyone is doing well here without my input. My sister has been employed at Walmart since she was 16 and has been a manager for the better part of the last decade. Walmart is the LAST place I would ever work and I go out of my way not to shop there.

Anyways, your post caught my attention. I have worked for a major Online Travel Agency (OTA) for over 11 years. Over the past few years they have upgraded from data mining. The program i used allowed me to view in real time or playback like a video everything the customer did and everything they clicked on our site. Not only that, I was able to see what URL they came from before coming to our site and what URL they left our site to go to. So if you had frequented a porn site before you decided to book your travel it is possible I knew that. This application wasn't widely used at the company but because I was the head a "click to chat" it was a very useful program for me. Specifically when we were getting harassed by punk kids in their high school computer rooms (happens more time than you could imagine), little did they know that shortly after they were having their fun, I was calling the school and letting them know what there computers were being used for. Clearly I was also able to determine not only what state you were in but what school district you resided in as well.

reply to post by jnance8602


Since you joined to post here and denounce the story, maybe you can answer some of the other concerns. Do you "profile" the people you are going to watch? Are the security cameras mostly fakes or not connected? Can you detain someone in the store or do you have to let them walk out? Why don't you have security cameras on the route to the LP office or in the office if you ask someone to join you there? Have people successfully sued WalMart for false accusations, or does the company give them a coupon or something if they are falsely accused and stopped? Things like that have come up in this thread. Thanks, and thanks for coming by to join the discussion.

reply to post by ANNED

Never leave where they detain you and go to the store LP office.

Agreed. I wouldn't. I will say that we didn't exactly follow the rules, but I never heard of anyone planting anything and I'm pretty sure I would have. Not to say it doesn't happen. Still, I'd worry about it and I would also worry because I carry a gun and it's pretty easy to say I brandished it considering I've never heard of a camera in the LP office.

If they take you to there LP office and find nothing they will then claim you passed off the property to a another suspect they did not see.

Or you got rid of the item.

They can't say either of these things. It's a huge lawsuit if they do, and that's if it doesn't get physical. That's straight admitting that they disobeyed company policy and illegally detained someone. They might say it to scare someone (because let's face it bad stops are almost always on people who WERE trying to steal but got spooked and are too dumb to know the law) but it's not any sort of defense legally. When I was doing it there were like 3 States where it was actually illegal to conceal in the store. None of the companies I know about (granted that isn't all of them) would allow a stop based on concealment alone, you had to maintain 100% visual (lol) and see the person pass all POS.

Most stores have only about 25% of the cameras working and a number of camera mounts are empty.

I'm surprised it's that many. I've always been under the impression Wal Mart is incredibly lax on security, they can afford to be and frankly LP is a liability half the time. I've been in offices in certain department stores (I would NOT try to steal from Nordstrom) that would probably astound people, but in general it seems like about 75% of cameras are fake. Obviously that changes depending on the stores risk numbers. I worked in a very high risk store and we only had one PTZ and maybe 20 cameras (aside from the registers and covert cams we could wire up anywhere *cough* break room/equipment room/receiving area).

A security camera watcher can only watch so many cameras and will burn out quick.

That and with a finite number of bodies on the floor to maintain visual and actually snarf someone up before they get into the parking lot etc. it makes more sense to have plainclothes people walking around. I still loved it in bigger even more high risk stores when there were 4 of us doing an 'impact' (read we got bored and drove to another store to BS) and someone could stay on cameras and conference call all of our cell phones. Pass the visual like a football.

One town i lived in they caught 3 wally world LPO shoplifting from the local Kmart.
they thought they had learned all the tricks from the shoplifters they had caught.
but another LPO from wally world overheard there plans and warned Kmart's LPOs

Not all that surprised. They probably would have got away with it too (is that Scooby Doo?) if they hadn't been overheard. Give me 1 other former LP and I could rob a store BLIND. I just don't have any desire. I would actually love to do it if it was a test for new AP guys.

I keep switching AP and LP. We switched at some point when I was doing it. Asset apparently sounded better than Loss.

I can't forget that stuff. I've given a few local grocery stores license plates after watching someone brazenly roll out with a ton of alcohol. I was at a store with my Father back in the day. I told him the guy that just passed us had just stolen something, pointed out the LP following him. 5 minutes later the guy I pointed out is being discretely escorted. 5 minutes after that a cop showed up and was looking around confused so I told him where the LP office was. "How did you know?". "His demeanor and shoes".

Look at people's shoes. People who steal have bad shoes, not 100% of the time, but a lot of the time.

Aleister
reply to post by jnance8602

 

Since you joined to post here and denounce the story, maybe you can answer some of the other concerns. Do you "profile" the people you are going to watch? Are the security cameras mostly fakes or not connected? Can you detain someone in the store or do you have to let them walk out? Why don't you have security cameras on the route to the LP office or in the office if you ask someone to join you there? Have people successfully sued WalMart for false accusations, or does the company give them a coupon or something if they are falsely accused and stopped? Things like that have come up in this thread. Thanks, and thanks for coming by to join the discussion.

edit on 1-4-2014 by Aleister because: (no reason given)

Our policies prohibit "profiling" on the basis of race, sex, gender, etc. etc. But we do have red flags we watch for, suspicious activity that could indicate shoplifting. These signs could be exhibited by anyone (I've seen it from teenagers to old grandmothers). Of course we can detain people. It a businesses legal right to detain customers to investigate a possible crime committed against them and then elevate the situation to law enforcement. What we are restricted on is the length we can go to detain people. We don't pursue it if the situation becomes violent. As for the camera situation, every store is different. I know that every store I have been in is well covered on the route to the AP office. People have successfully sued Walmart but that is usually when the LP associate makes a stupid decision or takes it too far. By FAR Wal-Mart usually wins those cases because people underestimate just what we can legally do.

reply to post by jnance8602


Thanks. There seems to be differing opinions from the pros on the thread about if they can detain someone or not detain someone. If they can't touch the person, they can't detain them, is my guess. And the state of a person's shoes seems to be, from a couple of posters, one of the determining identification marks of a possible thief (or at least a retail thief - extremely good shoes may indicate other kinds of crooks). Interesting mix, I've never read much about this or was able to ask these questions, so thanks for answering.

Joki42
reply to post by VoidHawk

 

Yes. If you walk in off the street and buy headphones and leave, and an employee, customer or LP suspects you of a crime, the LP manager can access your bank statement. If he feels good reason to believe you might have done something he will call stores you shop at and ask for their info about you or that they need to watch for you.

i don't know about the rest of your original post....but this part is simply bogus. Maybe you saw what you wanted to see.