Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: convenience store robbery--can the store be liable

I'm not sure what you think the gas station should be liable for. Not having a video camera probably didn't cause the robbery, so holding the station liable for your girlfriend's loss doesn't seem just. She might have had somewhat better evidence of the crime had there been a camera (or maybe not, depending on the camera angle, the distance from the robber, the lighting, which way he was facing, etc.), but her testimony should be enough to go forward once the robber is caught. After all, robbers were prosecuted and jailed based solely on such evidence long before videotape was invented.

Businesses usually are not required to have video monitoring of their premises at all, so the lack of such monitoring is usually not a problem. Signs stating that there is video surveillance in progress are designed to discourage thieves from committing crimes on the premises but are not guarantees of safety for the customer. After all, videotaping does not prevent crimes; it simply gives those who know about it an incentive to behave lawfully. If someone commits a crime on the premises anyway, why should the owner be responsible for it?

Business owners do have obligations to make their premises reasonably safe. These obligations are generally limited to the physical condition of the premises themselves and apply to such concerns as wet floors and the like. No business can guarantee that its customers will be protected from criminals, and the presence of a video camera does not implicitly create such a promise.

The robber probably didn't know at the time that the video recorder had been turned off, so your girlfriend probably would have been robbed whether the camera was running or not. I don't see any legal problem with the store's decision to turn off the outdoor camera.

There are some limited situations in which a business may have more obligation to protect the safety of its customers, especially if there has been a history of crimes on the premises which might be dissuaded by some reasonable means. Usually this can be done by providing adequate lighting and clearing away any overgrown plants or debris which might make it easier for a robber to go undetected. Even in these limited situations, though, the fact that a third party intentionally chose to commit a crime is often enough to relieve the owner of any liability for the crime.