STOCKTON, California — A new study examining crime statistics and workers at fast food restaurants across California finds a disturbing trend of violence and concludes much more needs to be done to protect workers.
According to the report done by "Fastfoodjusticeahora.com," there were over 77,000 violent or threatening incidents at fast food restaurants in the Golden State from 2017 to 2020.
The group gathered 911 calls from four fast food chains including McDonalds, Jack in the Box, Burger King and Carl's Jr.
643 fast food restaurants in nine cities were examined.
Topping the list were Los Angeles with 18,509 violent or threatening incidents followed by Stockton with 12,509, San Francisco with 8,956 and Sacramento with 8,397.
Of the top 20 locations named in the study, Stockton had seven locations.
Two McDonald's locations in Stockton, 322 S. Center Street and 1423 N. Center Street, had the highest numbers of violent incidents in the state, according to the study.
The 322 S. Center Street location had 2,213 incidents.
It topped the list and is located just a block away from the Stockton Police Department and just off the Highway 4 Crosstown Freeway.
Stockton Police Officer Joe Silva, spokesman for the department, confirmed the numbers gathered in the report for Stockton are accurate.
"We do have homeless related crimes that take place at some of these local restaurants, a lot of our officers have to go out there and deal with that, but sometimes it's reported as a crime but then when we get out and investigate it it's really not a crime," said Silva.
The report says 13% of the crimes were physical or sexual assault in nature.
"Fast-food companies like McDonald’s, Jack in the Box, Carl’s Jr. and Burger King have failed to take meaningful action to improve this situation, despite repeated calls from workers to do so," according to the author of the report.
The report also contains individual stories from workers who say they have experienced violence in the workplace.
Among the solutions named in the report: "employing trained security officers; adjusting hours of operation; making changes to these stores’ layouts and lighting; ensuring appropriate staffing levels, especially at late hours; and providing proper training and support for workers."
"Some things these restaurants can do in our city is contact us here at the police department. We do have a crime prevention specialist who will go out to that business or restaurant and conduct what we call Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design," Silva said. "They'll walk around the restaurant with the manager or the owner, look at the layout, see what can be done, maybe a little bit different, whether it is to cut down a tree, prune the bushes and also look at where video surveillance cameras should be placed."
McDonald's, which by far had the largest number of violent incidents documented at its restaurants in the report with 47,603, responded with a statement in which they refute the idea they are not protecting their workers enough.
McDonald's responded in a statement attributed to the company's director of global security Rob Holm to ABC10.
“The allegations shared in this report are disappointing and do not reflect the rigorous safety and security procedures restaurant teams maintain to keep over 800,000 restaurant employees and 25 million customers safe under the Arches each day. While restaurants are not immune to the activity that happens outside their doors, the fact is, McDonald’s role as such a familiar presence in so many communities generates a high volume of 'false positives' or proximity-based calls when it comes to 911 call logs. Historically, many emergency calls that mention McDonald’s have nothing to do with our operations or interactions between customers and crew but instead, for example, might reference McDonald’s as a nearby locator for first responders; in fact, the report itself admits that the reviewer’s system of categorization is 'imperfect' given the lack of details available in the data the researchers reviewed."
The statement went on to say "Restaurant managers and crew at McDonald’s corporate-owned restaurants undergo full training including a comprehensive workplace violence prevention program on safety and security practices, and we provide the same resources to franchisees to support their teams. McDonald’s is also implementing Global Brand Standards for safe and respectful workplaces in 2022, which includes requiring all 39,000 McDonald’s restaurants globally to maintain procedures for incident reporting and workplace violence policies and trainings.”
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