Lang
5/15/21
Representatives from Casey’s General Stores say they’ve “paused” the use of an armed security guard at the company’s Broadway Street location in Iowa City.
The move comes after numerous community complaints.
The issue was raised earlier this month in a guest column in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, in a tweet from the Iowa City Police Activity Log Twitter account, and at last week’s People’s Truth and Reckoning Commission meeting conducted by the Iowa Freedom Riders at Wetherby Park.
Critics say the armed guard sent 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.
Casey’s officials say they added the armed guard at the Broadway 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. On Thursday, a Casey’s representative told the Press-Citizen that it would pause the use of the guard and the company is “evaluating the need and future plan for when/how security support is needed.”