Indiana battles No. 1 rank in pharmacy robberies
Pharmacy robberies are rising nationwide as the prescription drug epidemic increases, and Indiana has the unwelcome distinction of leading the U.S. in these crimes.
More than 130 Indiana pharmacies have reported robberies since the start of 2015, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which tracks any incident in which prescription drugs are lost, said Greg Westfall, assistant special agent in charge in Indianapolis.
The Indiana Board of Pharmacy cites an even higher number, calculating a total of 151 robberies since the beginning of the year, said Ted Cotterill, the board’s director. Robbery attempts aren’t included in that figure.
Indianapolis alone has had more 130 pharmacy robberies, including attempts, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
Although the numbers may differ, all agree that this year, Indiana has had more pharmacy robberies than any other state.
“This puts us at number one in the country at the moment, which is not the kind of number one that Indiana wants to be in any category,” Cotterill said.
To counter such thefts, CVS/pharmacy announced last week that it has installed time-delay safes in more than 150 stores in the Indianapolis metro area to deter would-be robbers.
Such thieves like to get in and out of a store as quickly as possible, but time-delay safes require pharmacy employees to enter a code and then for a period of time before a safe will open.
No other CVS market in the nation has time-delay safes, Michael DeAngelis, a CVS/pharmacy spokesman said in an email.
“After completing our study of time-delay safes this summer, we determined that now was the appropriate time to implement them in our Indianapolis stores,” DeAngelis said.
Walgreens, which also has the safes in a number of its stores in other states, installed them in Indiana last year, too.
While many hope that the time-delay safes can help turn around the pharmacy robbery rate, they shed no light on why these crimes are so prevalent in Indiana, a question many in the field have been asking for some time now.
“If I had the answer, I would tell you right now,” Cotterill said. Later this fall, the Indiana Board of Pharmacy plans to hold a roundtable with pharmacists and law enforcement experts to explore the question further and potentially arrive at some solutions.
Earlier this month, Gov. Mike Pence announced the creation of a task force specifically to address prescription drug abuse and heroin use.
But Indiana is far from alone. Many other states also are also battling such problems.
So why have pharmacy robberies skyrocketed here?
“It is kind of baffling,” said Todd Meyer, prosecuting attorney for Boone County, which has seen a number of major pharmacy robberies in recent months.
In recent years, Indiana also has cracked down on doctors overprescribing prescription narcotics, shutting down several so-called “pill mills.” In addition, the statewide database Inspect aims to identify patients filling multiple prescriptions for narcotics, who could then be diverting those pills.
These efforts, although positive, may have inadvertently fueled robberies, Cotterill said.
“While we have tightened the grip on prescribing and dispensing, we may have just driven that traffic elsewhere,” he said.
Another factor may have to do with the state’s penalty for juvenile offenders, those in law enforcement say. Many of the robberies have involved juveniles, in some cases, as young as 13.
If they get caught, the sentences they face likely will not be as harsh as for adults, said Patricia Baldwin, a prosecuting attorney for Hendricks County, where many Rockville Road pharmacies have been hit. Depending on the circumstances, they could get probation or a suspended commitment.
“The juveniles assume not much will happen,” Baldwin said. “If you can walk in and walk out with something that’s worth a lot of money, a lot of people take advantage of something like that.”
Pharmacy robberies have been going on in the state for almost a decade, says Ken Fagerman, author of the book “Staring Down the Barrel.” The former South Bend pharmacist recalled how his community organized to fight back with efforts such as a pharmacy crime watch.
Other measures that could help prevent such robberies include installing panic buttons in every pharmacy to allow employees to contact police immediately and alert other nearby stores to be on the alert. In one instance, four pharmacies close to one another were robbed within a matter of hours.
Implementing such initiatives would help empower pharmacists, Fagerman said.
“Because pharmacists are intimidated or practicing in fear, sometimes they do not question or defend the prescription drug supply the way they should,” he said. “This criminal element has been accustomed to this passivity and being issued anything they want on demand and getting away with it. ... When you allow this situation to get out of hand which it has, it’s a self-perpetuating system.”
No one disputes that in Indiana, pharmacy robberies have gotten out of hand.
In the past year, the commercial robbery unit of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has focused almost entirely on pharmacy robberies, Lt. Craig McCartt said.
A few years ago, most of these robberies were conducted by people who were addicted to the drugs they were stealing. More recently, though, the bulk of the robberies have been committed by people who plan on selling the ill-gotten goods, McCartt said.
In many cases, the robber hands the pharmacy employee a note with a list of narcotics he is seeking. The note may imply that the robber has a weapon but rarely does he reveal it.
In some cases, adults approach youths and recruit them for such crimes, McCartt said. In other cases, the juveniles act on their own and wind up selling whatever prescription drugs that they steal.
“I think that the word spread at the high schools, through social media, that this was an easy source of money and everybody started doing it,” he said. “As we arrest these guys, there’s somebody right there to take their place immediately.”
The criminals also have not restricted their activity to Indianapolis city limits. Both Boone and Hendricks counties have seen a number of pharmacy robberies as well.
In many cases, the criminals have ties to Indianapolis gangs, Meyer said.
“All of us in the doughnut counties are kind of susceptible,” he said.
But at the end of the day, even the police say they do not know what’s driving the high number of robberies in this state.
“I wish I knew exactly,” McCartt said. “Honestly I think it could be any other city, any other state in the nation truly, but we just have misfortune of it being here.”
Call Star reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354. Follow her on Twitter: @srudavsky.
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