All 838 CVS Pharmacy locations throughout Florida, including those in Target stores, have new time-delay safe technology installed, News4JAX sister station WKMG reported.
The technology was implemented to prevent pharmacy robberies and the potential for illegal drug distribution of controlled substance medications, including opioid medications like oxycodone and hydrocodone.
The safes can electronically delay the time it takes for pharmacy employees to gain access, which CVS Region Director Ricardo Lopez said will reduce robberies.
“They want to get in and out of the pharmacy as quick as possible. The delay serves as a deterrent,” Lopez said.
Pharmacy employees in Florida are no strangers to armed robberies.
WKMG reported in 2019 that a man named Louis Curler walked into a Daytona Beach Walgreens, demanding drugs with a weapon in his hand.
In a 911 call, an employee said, “We have a guy here who just jumped the pharmacy counter with a rifle. He has a gun.”
Before that, Volusia County Sheriff’s detectives investigated a Pierson Community Pharmacy Robbery in 2017. A man with a gun had forced employees to lead him to a safe containing pill bottles.
That same year, another terrifying robbery was caught on tape — this time at a Walgreens in Lakeland. The thief ordered a pharmacist to give him several bottles of oxycodone and Percocet while threatening to shoot her.
“We know that this is a challenge we have in front of us,” Lopez told WKMG.
Lopez said retail crime is a danger to Florida communities, so it is important that retailers, law enforcement and political leaders work together to solve the problem.
CVS Health first implemented time-delay safe technology in 2015 in CVS Pharmacy locations across Indianapolis, a city that the company said experienced a high volume of pharmacy robberies at the time.
After implementing the technology, the company said it saw a 70% decline in pharmacy robberies in that area.
A CVS spokesperson also said there has been a 50% decline in robberies at CVS Pharmacy locations with safes.