Wal-Mart could create more work for police

While the northeast annexation has had little impact on the Mill Creek Police Department so far, that could change some if a Wal-Mart store opens at 132nd Street SE and 39th Avenue SE.

According to data received by the police department from the Wal-Mart store on 164th Street SW., a new store in Mill Creek could generate 250 additional police reports a year and 1,250 calls for service – an average of more than three calls per day. Those are the numbers of calls and reports the Wal-Mart on 164th Street SW said it generated for the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office in 2004.

“It’s not that many calls,” Mill Creek police chief Bob Crannell said.

Crannell presented the figures from Wal-Mart to the City Council on Oct. 25, the night the annexation was approved. He said the department didn’t corroborate those numbers with the Sheriff’s Office.

“We felt Wal-Mart had the best numbers,” he said.

The calls that a Wal-Mart store could generate, Crannell said, could be everything from people locked out of their cars to missing children to auto accidents, fraud, and shoplifting. One reason for that is that a store like Wal-Mart will have more customers than, for example, Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, the only big-box retailer currently in Mill Creek.

Other than the proposed Wal-Mart, projected impacts on the department resulting from the annexation do not appear to be significant, which was one reason City Council members approved the annexation.

At Council’s request, the department studied projected crime levels. The department used current crime levels in local neighborhoods and the Gateway Shopping Center at 132nd and Bothell-Everett Highway to estimate crime in the annexation area.

The department is projecting that the annual calls for service in the area, between residential areas, business districts and traffic accidents, will be 2,839, which in turn would result in 599 more reports for officers, less than two per day.

Projections show the number of residential calls will increase by 1,300, an average of four per day. Research showed that for every five calls received, one report was taken.

The Thomas Lake Shopping Center at 132nd and 35th Avenue SE is also not expected to have what police say is a major impact. The study projects it as having the same impact as the Gateway Shopping Center one mile to the west on 132nd. That projected impact: 160 calls for service and 32 reports. Both centers are anchored by grocery stores.