Convenience operators in Toledo challenge law as unconstitutionalmp1

A new law in Toledo, Ohio, requiring convenience stores to be licensed and to install security cameras has been challenged in federal court by an alliance of shop owners and will not be enforced until the end of the month, people on both sides of the legal battle said, according to an article by Ignazio Messina in The Toledo Blade.

Scott Ciolek of the Toledo law firm Ciolek & Wicklund said the city agreed to the delay after meeting May 6 with 20 store owners and operators, according to the article, which noted that Ciolek said the law is unconstitutional and would force some stores out of business. Ciolek filed a complaint April 2 in U.S. District Court in Toledo on behalf of the Midwest Retailers Association, seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction against the ordinance, according to the article, published May 8 in The Blade online.

Toledo is not the only city to adopt a law designed to curtail crime in and around convenience stores. Houston, Texas and Hartford, Conn. have recently adopted similar laws.

In Houston, under a new ordinance designed to combat crime, every convenience store must install color, digital surveillance cameras, according to news reports.

The Houston ordinance was adopted by the city council in March. Store operators have been given 18 months to comply. Some of the other requirements, according to a report by Lee McGuire of KHOU-TV in Houston, are:

• Owners must provide annual safety training to all employees
• Stores must post “no trespassing” and “no loitering” signs on the property, which would allow police to remove vagrant people from parking lots and corners
•Post height strips at exits, which help employees accurately describe suspects after a hold-up
•Install silent panic and holdup alarms
•Install a drop safe, which prevents easy access to large amounts of cash

Failure to comply with the new rules is a class C misdemeanor, which would lead to a $500 fine, according to news reports.

The Houston ordinance grew out of a report issued in August 2007 by Mayor Bill White’s Task Force on Convenience Store Security. In 2006, Houston police recorded 6,962 incidents at 980 convenience stores or their parking lots, according to the report. Officials said in 2007 that crime at convenience stores had decreased by about 8 percent since 2003.

“The crime trends are positive and downward, but we can't be satisfied,” Mayor White said last year upon the completion of the report. “The Task Force has helped us understand how we can work smarter together to improve on security and cooperation.” (For more on the origin of the Houston ordinance, see the Aug. 31, 2007, and Sept. 10, 2007, editions of NPN MarketPulse, available in the archives at NPNWeb.org.)

The new law in Hartford, which became effective this spring, applies to convenience stores and gas stations open between the hours of 11:30 p.m. and 5 a.m., according to news reports, which noted that such stores must have surveillance cameras, a silent alarm and a drop safe.

Hartford police said they conducted inspections at two stores at around 1 a.m. March 12 and found both stores to be operating without a license that allows them to be open at that hour, according to WTNH-TV, which reported that the stores were subsequently shut down.