An Increase in Pharmacy Break-Ins?
Why Criminals Target Pharmacies
Criminals want to be able to steal as many valuables as possible in the fastest time and with the least effort. This is why they often target pharmacies. Pharmacies contain a wide variety of items that are not only valuable to criminals, but also ones that can be carried from the property with relative ease.
The most obvious items (and most common targets at pharmacies) are medication. Both prescription medication and over-the-counter drugs are very valuable to criminals. These items can easily be resold for profit on the black market. They are also very small, so one or two criminals can steal quite a lot of medication in a very short period of time without worrying about how they will transport it. Finally, these items are very difficult to track if they are stolen.
As you can see, this information makes it quite clear why pharmacies are frequent targets for criminals.
But it is not just medication that criminals go after. There are a wide variety of items in a pharmacy that are both valuable and small enough to easily carry. These valuables range from baby formula to razor blades to cosmetics to a number of other items.
There are many reasons why criminals want to break into a pharmacy or drug store. In fact, as an example of how often these break-ins occur, the Arkansas state pharmacy board recently stated that if the current rate of break-ins continues, 2016 could surpass the record for pharmacy robberies and break-ins in the state.
Therefore, it’s very important that business owners take the time to understand how to protect their properties.
Keeping Your Pharmacy Secure
The vast majority of break-ins that take place at pharmacies are what are classified as “smash and grab” robberies. In these crimes, criminals use force to break through doors and windows in order to gain access to a property. Once they have access, they quickly steal whatever items they can. These crimes are effective because it often takes criminals only a few minutes to get in and out of a property. In some cases, a smash and grab robbery is over in just a few seconds.
The speed of a smash and grab robbery makes many typical forms of security much less effective. For example, even if a property is protected by an alarm system, the authorities will not be able to respond to the alarm quickly enough to catch the criminals in the act.
In addition, many criminals cover their faces with hoods or scarves during their break-ins, which makes it much, much more difficult to identify them on surveillance camera footage.
In order to keep a property safe, you need to make it much more difficult to access the property in the first place. This is where security gates and other physical security tools come in. They make it significantly more difficult and time-consuming to break into a pharmacy, drug store or nearly any other location. Most smash and grab criminals do not typically bring sophisticated tools with them. They often break in with items like crowbars, baseball bats and rocks. For this reason, they’re not often willing or able to attempt to break through a strong security gate.
Security gates also make it much more time consuming to gain access to a property. Criminals know that the longer they spend at a location, they more likely they are to be caught in the act. They would much rather strike a pharmacy that does not have security gates installed.
We have some more helpful tips to improving the security of your business. Download our helpful guide to Improving Your Security Mindset.
