Mike Solana

Used correctly, data can help evaluate and check the official statements of powerful actors like corporations and govt. agencies. For months, Walgreens has been claiming that shoplifting rates are soaring. Yet when we've asked them for data, they've refused to provide it 2/

So my colleagues went to another source: The SFPD. Of course, SFPD is far from an unbiased data source. But unless they were actively fudging numbers, their incident reports would show if there was a major spike in reported shoplifting at stores set to close. & there wasn't. 3/

One of the stores only had 7 reports this year! Of course, most shoplifting incidents aren't reported. But even if only 1/10 incidents is reported to police, that's 70 incidents so far this year...not an insurmountable number for a big chain like Walgreens, I should think 4/