Blue Flashing Lights In WalMart Parking Lot Are Crime Fighters

DOUGLASVILLE, GA - If you've noticed the flashing lights as you head to your car at WalMart, it's not a blue light special. It's a new way to fight crime.

As part of a nationwide effort to fight and deter crime, the Walmart on Concourse Parkway in Douglasville and another off Thornton Road recently installed Lot Cop, according to the Douglas County Sentinel.

Lot Cop, that looks kind of like a solar panel, is a surveillance system that uses cameras and flashing blue lights. There’s one on each side of the stores' parking lot.

More than 100 WalMarts across the country have Lot Cops, engineered by Live View Technologies in Utah. Walmart won’t share specifics about the technology, explaining that they want to keep criminals from knowing how it works, according to the Sentinel.

But the idea is to offer an extra set of eyes on the parking lot, in addition to cameras currently in place.

"In the last year, we’ve seen a drop of crime across the country in areas where Lot Cops were placed,” said Casey Staheli with WalMart media relations.

“Lot Cop has a wide range of technologies including allowing us to interact with a potential situation from a distance through smart cameras, speakers, floodlights and flashing strobe light. We’re investing in and installing Lot Cops in stores across the country.”

Read more here.