In an urban area with major drug and homeless issues which frequently carries over into the store. At night, AP is typically occupied with watching out for drug usage / loitering and locks up the restrooms as soon as *bucks closes at night - local laws state restrooms only have to be open if we are serving so they close with the *bucks. We routinely have people banging on the outside doors after hours even until 3am and ignore it. Typically, it is some drunk that has left his car in the garage and is demanding we let him in. We ignore but if they continue an ETL or TL will let them know through the intercom to phone the number on their claim ticket. The garage is owned/operated by the building and staffed 24/7 so it's pretty much safe and closes at the same time as the store. Receiving / vendor docks are in a dark, narrow alley and covered with cameras so we see all sorts of "business" on a nightly basis happening in that area. Frequently, someone will reach through the dock between the truck and wall - we just sharply yell at them to back the F off and they always go away.
The front stoop is normally occupied after hours by homeless setting up a nightly sleep camp but they are harmless but do leave quite a mess when they leave around 4/5 in the morning. Do I feel safe in the store? For the most part, yes. However, there is one o/n TL that will disarm then sneak out the front or into the garage for a smoke break whenever he feels like it and that always makes me slightly nervous: if someone were to grab him and try to force us to open up (which has happened at other o/n businesses in the immediate area) then it could cause a serious situation. As horrible as it may sound, if that were to happen we've all said we would walk away. Much better to risk one than to allow the entire crew be affected. And yes, complaints have been made but he is buddy-buddy with folks at the store, etc etc so nothing ever happens. We've given up on filing complaints.
In general, the crime that occurs here and at other urban locations is typically drug-related; most will not attempt anything in such a high-profile area (lighting, cameras, multiple employees, etc etc). If the cameras show something shady in the alley we take a look - if it is Nighttime Nellie with her John getting a $5 handy we shake our head, giggle then ignore it. If it's something a bit more nefarious we make a bit of noise with the Crown horns, etc which usually causes them to move along.
Again, other than Clueless Cletus stepping outside there's really nothing we become too concerned with: just keep our eyes and ears open a bit. We keep to ourselves and our Spot work and they keep to themselves with their ... whatever work. I imagine it would be the same at most urban locales.
