Lang
5/8/21
The use of an armed guard at an Iowa City convenience store is stirring up controversy.
The issue was raised in a guest column in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, in a tweet from the Iowa City Police Activity Log Twitter account, and at Thursday night’s People’s Truth and Reckoning Commission meeting conducted by the Iowa Freedom Riders at Wetherby Park.
At issue is Casey’s use of an armed security guard at its Broadway Street store. Critics say the armed guard sends a bad message to a neighborhood with a high minority population. A Casey’s spokesman told The Gazette that an estimated 24 Casey’s stores out of over 2,200 use some sort of on-duty security guard.
Iowa City resident Mary Russell wrote in a Gazette piece that having armed security could have the opposite of the intended effect, arguing that an untrained or racist guard could shoot someone, or a gun could be discharged by accident.
Freedom Rider officials say they went to the North Dubuque Street and Willow Creek Casey’s locations and learned that neither has used an armed guard. The Broadway Street store is in a neighborhood with a 25% black population. By contrast, the Dubuque Street location is in a 4% minority neighborhood.
Casey’s officials say they added the armed guard at the Broadway Street store in 2018 due to increased levels of what they call “disruptive activity”. Iowa City Police say that since the first of the year, the Willow Creek location has actually had more calls for service than the Broadway store.
The official Casey’s account tweeted a reply to the Freedom Riders’ account saying it would look into the situation.