Walmart has been hiring off-duty officers across El Paso, Texas to improve its security.
Walmart has quietly hired off-duty officers at dozens of its stores, including Supercenters and Neighbor Markets, Walmart's smaller grocery stores ahead of the reopening of the El Paso store where a gunman killed 22 people and injured many individuals, says a news report.
According to the report, the reopening will happen unceremoniously and will follow a brief meeting with employees, said Walmart spokeswoman Delia Garcia. When asked about security measures, Garcia declined to comment; however, she noted Walmart typically does not share security measures publicly because it could make them less effective, "but they may include hiring additional security, adding cameras in store and using ‘lot cops’ in the parking lot. We will continue our long-standing practice of regularly evaluating our staffing, training, procedures, and technology which are designed to provide a safe working and shopping experience," says the report.
“We’re covering Walmarts, we’re also covering Sam’s (Club),” said El Paso police union president Ron Martin to the news report. “Even the neighborhood Walmarts are being covered. Some of them are being covered by sheriff’s deputies, some of them are being covered by our guys. I mean, I have seen some constables working it.”
Families of the victims of the El Paso Shooting have sued Walmart and claimed the shooting could have been prevented if Walmart had better security practices.