The Long And Short Of It

The other day I was leaving a convenience store when I noticed a tape measure hung up just inside the door. It wasn't much more than a large sticker on the door frame and instead of just giving the normal measurement in inches, it was set up to translate into people's heights. The door itself was covered by other promotional stickers the store had received from companies, so I thought it was just another one of those. While I found it kind of odd thing to be handing out, I went about my business. It wasn't until I was back in my car that I figured out why it was there: so that when (not if) the place was robbed, they could consult the video surveillance tape and give the police an accurate height of the suspect. Talk about planning ahead.

On the one hand, this seems like a very smart idea. I have seen enough documentaries on all the inaccurate statements given by eye witnesses to know that they are pretty much always wrong. Between the shock of the event, focusing on the wrong thing and not knowing what details are most important, more often than not 5 people witnessing the same crime will give 5 different descriptions of the person who committed it. Being able to go to video evidence in that situation is a much better idea than relying on some person working behind a counter who is shaking because they just had a gun in their face. This simple yet effective tool allows police to have a more correct information, which is a really good thing.

On the other hand, it does seem a bit of a downer. You're essentially telling you employees that eventually they are going to get robbed, so they had better start mentally preparing for it. Not exactly a happy work environment. With that in mind, doesn't it seem like people's energy could be better served by coming up with ways for the store to, I don't know, not get robbed in the first place? Because the other thing you have to keep in mind is that this tape measure sticker is only as accurate as the people who set it up. If those people couldn't quite reach the top of the door frame then it won't be useful anyway. The next thing you know police are going to be looking for a 6'7" robber who in actuality is closer to 6'3", all because the night manager was too lazy to grab a ladder out of the back room.

Besides, while I'm not about to claim I know the inner workings of the criminal mind, I'm going to guess that if someone has made plans to rob a store the fact that their height is going to be on file isn't much of a concern. How about instead of working out ways to catch the criminals after the fact, you try and come up with some type of deterrent which would make them think twice about robbing you? Or at the very least more accurately collect information to give to police. And by more accurately, I mean perhaps that system should be more technologically advanced than what Disney World uses to see if kids are tall enough to ride the Teacups.