White Castle Tackles Loitering, Panhandling, and Vandalism with Interface’s Virtual Perimeter Guard
White Castle is a family-owned restaurant chain that began in 1921 and has grown into a multi-state operation. One of White Castle’s restaurants in the St. Louis area operates in a high-crime environment and faced persistent challenges in securing its perimeter and drive-thru during late-night hours.
Challenge
A White Castle restaurant in St. Louis dealt with recurring loitering and panhandling that created safety concerns for customers and team members. Panhandling resulted in line abandonment and lost sales as customers in the drive-thru chose to drive away. The location also faced vandalism that included broken windows and defacement. A single damaged window could cost more than $1,000 to replace once parts and labor were included, and repairs could force a drive-thru window out of service and disrupt operations.
The building layout added to the risk. Teams working inside could not clearly see activity on the side or back of the restaurant, including a stairwell area where drug activity and other unwanted incidents were reported. Over time, the location saw more after-hours incidents, more cleanup, and more pressure on restaurant staff and managers to respond.
“People who were not customers would come onto the parking lot, walk up to cars, and ask customers for money or to buy them food, which didn’t make anybody feel safe coming to the location.”
Cheryl Soest
District Supervisor
White Castle
Solution
Interface deployed Virtual Perimeter Guard (VPG) at this site to deliver proactive perimeter deterrence without burdening in-store teams with the task of spotting issues in real time. VPG uses AI-enabled cameras to detect people where they are not supposed to be and trigger a layered response that includes voice-down warnings and strobe lights. The system can escalate persistent threats to Interface’s U.S.-based iSOC for live remote intervention.
White Castle scheduled VPG coverage for the hours that mattered most at this location, from midnight to 6 a.m. The deployment included a structured onboarding process and weekly check-ins to confirm the system performed as expected. Restaurant managers also had online access to review activity and received weekly reports to track activations and outcomes.
Results Delivered
After installation, the restaurant saw a noticeable reduction in loitering and panhandling around the building and drive-thru. Customers waiting in the drive-thru line no longer had the same frequency of non-customers approaching vehicles to ask for money or food. The team also reported less stress at shift changes, since employees and their friends or family felt safer coming and going.
Vandalism-related disruption also declined. With fewer incidents happening outside, morning cleanups improved, with less trash and fewer signs of late-night activity on the property. As Cheryl Soest, District Supervisor at White Castle, put it, the team could focus on running the restaurant because “someone’s got eyes and ears on it.”
With VPG in place, the restaurant also saw a significant reduction in the usage of security phones to alert Interface’s iSOC about disruptive customers or criminal events. The significant improvement in perimeter safety and a reduced burden on the restaurant staff to handle late-night escalations have prompted White Castle to evaluate an expanded rollout of the Virtual Perimeter Guard to additional high-risk locations.
“With Interface’s Virtual Perimeter Guard, the warning lights activate automatically, and a voice-down message tells loiterers to leave, and it usually only takes one warning for them to clear out.”
