Philadelphia is considering whether to ban barrier windows inside shops

(This post originally appeared on The Washington Post)

Running a small business is challenging — but even more so for merchants who open up shop in neighborhoods where there is a higher incidence of crime. For years, one way these shopkeepers try protect themselves and their employees against theft or harm is to install thick plexiglass at the counter between the cashier and the customer. But is this a good thing?

Some people in Philadelphia don’t think so and now one local councilwoman is introducing legislation to force the city’s shopkeepers to take the glass down.

“It’s an indignity” to make purchases through such a window, said City Councilwoman Cindy Bass in this Philadelphia Inquirer article. Bass and others believe the windows represent race and class differences and a “symbol of distrust.” She, along with five co-sponsors, has proposed a bill requiring shopkeepers to remove their windows and if the bill receives a majority support in a scheduled committee meeting today it will head for a full vote on Dec. 14.

Shopkeepers, of course, are not happy. “Most of our businesses are in not-as-safe neighborhoods,” Adam Xu, the chairman of the Asian American Licensed Beverage Association of Philadelphia told the Inquirer. Xu and most of his members don’t want the city interfering with whether they’re allowed to have the partitions in their stores, saying the barriers have served as a deterrence against crime and help provide a safer environment for both store owners and their employees. Hundreds of merchants are expected to attend the committee meeting today to voice their concerns.

Is there a better alternative?

Bass thinks store owners should “hire security guards and install surveillance cameras,” an expensive proposition. Another councilman, Alan Domb, suggested that store owners find ways to make the windows look “cosmetically better,” telling the Inquirer that “a compromise is a win for everybody.” But longtime Councilman David Oh isn’t supporting the Bass’s bill. “I would just prefer the bulletproof glass,” he says. “It’s transparent, as opposed to the person with the gun on the holster on the hip.”