[VOA]

"This is really not uncommon," he said. "In fact, clerks are probably better off not knowing."

Translation:
We at corporate headquarters and the police don't want the bait or his/her relatives
to know who to go after in any sort of wrongful death lawsuit.

File this story under "They Were Expendable".

And I'm sending a copy to my trusting cousin. I try and try to tell him that
despite the many brave cops out there, what they are really legally bound to do
is just take good notes and try to catch the person who murders you.

[RossA]

OK, all you armchair quarterbacks, what should the police have done? Chhose one:

(a) Arrest two people for walking into a store - before they do anything - and try them on an informant's testimony?

(b) Arrange a substitute for the cashier? Without the store's permission? With no training on store procedures? Who might be detected as a policeman by the thieves?

(c) Arrest the thieves in the store after they show a weapon? Risking a shootout inside?

Waiting to arrest outside the store seems reasonable to me. And, if the police gave a funny story, it was probably to protect their informant.

[mrustow]

File this story under "They Were Expendable".

Ditto for department store security, which I used to be.

A few years ago, convenience store clerk was listed as the most dangerous job in America, because more men were murdered on the job, than any other occupation. I think convenience store clerk and livery cab driver jockey for places one and two, these days.

[mvpel]

Send your cousin a copy of Dial 911 And Die by Richard W. Stevens. It covers the police liability statutes in all 50 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico, and in nearly all cases, the police have no legal duty to protect you except under certain very specific circumstances. And in those where they do, you or your heirs have to spend years in court to get them to own up to it.