To deal with vagrancy issues and petty crime, Walgreens stores in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/memphis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Memphis</a> have installed speakers to loudly play classical music in the parking lot. 
The tactic, which has been used in Chicago and Los Angeles, is intended to deter loitering from homeless people and others, who sometimes harass customers. In Memphis, groups of about 10-15 people were loitering around in one of the Walgreens parking lots before the initiative was started, <a href="https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/walgreens-in-memphis-use-classical-music-for-crowd-control/article_9d93701a-4159-11ee-9225-6bf878a5aa76.html">according</a> to Fox13. 
“At various locations, we have implemented a recorded music loop that plays outside of the store to help deter loitering on the premises. We take steps to ensure the music is only loud enough for the immediate area around the store and cannot be heard by residents in surrounding neighborhoods,” Walgreens <a href="https://wreg.com/news/local/memphis-stores-using-classical-music-to-fight-crime/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. 
The music is being played at several Walgreens locations throughout the crime-plagued city through a mobile camera and speaker system. At one location, the music can be heard from across the street, WREG <a href="https://wreg.com/news/local/memphis-stores-using-classical-music-to-fight-crime/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Some city residents have enjoyed the music while others have said that it gets annoying. 
“Everybody else listens to hip-hop, pop, rock and everything else,” Chris Worsham, who listens to the music while at his bus stop, told Fox13. “Classical? Yeah, I don’t think they’ll stick around too long and try to Memphis jerk on that.” 
Another person said that the music was getting annoying. “I thought, ‘Oh there is a band playing and they’re really good.’ Then, the next day, I was like, ‘They’re still playing.’ And later that night, they’re still playing,” said Cameron Cooley, who works nearby, said. “I understand why they are using the music, but it’s the same key all day, the same music. It can be a deterrent and it definitely deters me.”
Memphis has consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in America, and has seen property and violent crime increase in the last year. Its murder rate is in the top ten worst in the U.S. 
The strategy for deterrence using classical music has also been used by Walgreens stores in Chicago and the Los Angeles Metro, which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/psychological-torture-chamber-l-a-subway-plays-classical-music-critics-go-bonkers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">started playing</a> classical music at a downtown subway station in April.
The Metro’s operations and security team worked with law enforcement to play symphonies, concertos, and piano sonatas by composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, and Vivaldi, in the Westlake/MacArthur Park Metro station starting in January.

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Memphis Walgreens Stores Using Classical Music To Deter Vagrants, Crime

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The Los Angeles Metro, trying to deter homeless people from bothering others on the subway system, is playing classical music at a downtown subway station, eliciting calls of “torture” from critics.
The Metro’s operations and security team worked with law enforcement to play symphonies, concertos, and piano sonatas by composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, and Vivaldi, in the Westlake/MacArthur Park Metro station starting in January. The rough weather plaguing the city in recent weeks catalyzed homeless people to find refuge in the subway system.
But critics complain that the music is too loud and promotes an elitist atmosphere. A recent L.A. Metro citizen-public-safety committee meeting featured a member calling the music a “psychological torture chamber,” The Daily Mail <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11940465/LA-blasting-loud-classical-music-downtown-subway-station-deter-homeless-people.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
“You’re trying to attract and make certain people feel comfortable based on the associations with classical music,” musicologist Lily E. Hirsch told <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-04-04/loud-classical-music-macarthur-park-metro-los-angeles-decibel-meter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Los Angeles Times</a>. “And you see that in fancy cheese shops that play classical music because they hope people will feel like they’re a part of some elite upscale world and then they’ll spend more money.”
Hirsch called the music dystopian and creepy, the Times reported, comparing it to music from “The Silence of the Lambs.”
Although the Times claimed the music was painfully loud, L.A. Metro spokesperson Dave Sotero insisted that “the music is not loud” at MacArthur Park station.
“It’s like a bird marking its territory where you hear the signal and you go, ‘OK, this is not for me. This is for the older money crowd,’” Hirsh opined. “And that technique seems to work. There are examples of teenagers leaving an area that’s playing classical music, not because they don’t like the music but because of the associations.” She complained that the music is divisive, saying it was “creating hierarchies of sound” that privileged people were welcome while others were not.
Sotero informed the Times that the music is being used “to restore safety at the transit station” and “as a means to support an atmosphere appropriate for spending short periods of time for transit customers who wait an average of five to 10 minutes for the next train to arrive.”
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Twenty-two people have died from suspected overdoses on Metro buses and trains since January 1. Transit officials claim the music has caused a &#8220;75 percent reduction in calls for emergency services, an over 50 percent reduction in vandalism, graffiti and cleanups; and a nearly 20 percent drop in crime.”

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Memphis Walgreens Stores Using Classical Music To Deter Vagrants, Crime

‘Psychological Torture Chamber’: L.A. Subway Plays Classical Music, Critics Go Bonkers