Who could forget those movie classics from 2009: Paul Blart Mall Cop starring Kevin James and Observe and Report with Seth Rogen. While it's safe to say that security personnel may not get the respect they deserve from Hollywood or from teenagers who visit our nation's shopping malls, it's equally true that they play an important role in protecting both businesses and people.
In one Ohio Mall, however, the decision was made to bring in on-duty police to make shoppers feel safe and, hopefully, begin shopping again.
In March of this year, the Tabani Group paid $21.5 million to purchase the Northgate Mall in Colerain, OH. The seller, Feldman Mall Properties, had paid $110 million in 2005 to acquire it.
"There's a reason the $100-million mall became a $20-million mall: Perceptions," Colerain Police Chief Dan Meloy told the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Chief Meloy, who is a lifelong resident of Colerain, told the paper, "If your friends and your neighbors are afraid, and if your mom tells you not to go somewhere because she thinks it's not safe, you're not going to go."
What makes the situation at Northgate unusual is that the local police have been contracted to replace the mall's security. In other parts of the nation, local police are used in addition to private security.