Wouldn’t you love to be small business person with a kiosk at that mall? You could ask one of the UNARMED mall guards to walk you to your car (parked at the outer edge of the lot so as not to take up shopper’s parking spaces in the busiest season) at 10pm with your bank deposit bag. I would certainly feel safe, wouldn’t you? Secure that an UNARMED mall guard could protect me and my hard earned $ from an ARMED “Thuggus Maximus” or 3.
The 'guards' in the mall are there to call the real police if something goes wrong. Some of the malls I have been in have police substations, but the owners of a lot of the malls don't like the 'intimidation' factor of having legitimate law-enforcement patrolling the corridors.