Madison Approves Security Cameras at Convenience Stores

The new ordinance requires all retailers to install cameras with views of specific areas.

April 13, 2018

MADISON, Wis. – This week, Madison’s Common Council voted to approve a new measure that mandates convenience stores install security cameras, WKOW-TV reports. The cameras must view entrances, exits, registers and all pumps, and be positioned to capture each customer’s face.

Retailers have six months to comply with the new requirement. After that time period, stores lacking cameras could face fines of $100 per day.

Madison Police Chief Mike Koval pushed for the measure for crime prevention and detection. “So people will feel less inclined to be impulsive about those miss behaviors or activities that involve crime,” Koval told WKOW back in November. “I also think it will help us a great deal in terms of those who enter, commit a crime, and then flee in a vehicle.”

A rash of robberies at Madison convenience stores last fall spurred the ordinance. “We've never had anything like that before,” said Sukhdeep Gill, manager of a BP gas station, which already has a camera security system in place. The cameras “can pinpoint the person's whereabouts if it correlates to what they're telling the police,” Gill said.

For more ways on keeping your store safe, visit the NACS Convenience Store Security and Safety section.

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