Windsor Police Launch Pharmacy Risk Assessment Tool

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Windsor Police Services visited Novocare Pharmacy on Walker Road today to demonstrate their newly devised self-help tool that will assist pharmacies in preventing robberies.

As part of Provincial Crime Prevention Week, which runs November 6 – 12, Barry Horrobin, Windsor Police Director of Planning and Physical Resources, officially unveiled the Pharmacy Physical Risk Assessment tool by running through it with Novocare owner Peter Dumo.

Horrobin considers pharmacies to be “neighbourhood assets,” and hopes that owners “will embrace the tool and do the self-audits.”

The checklist, which will be available on the WPS website later today, walks pharmacy owners through various points of interest including lighting, counter height and width, product placement, and sightlines, all of which can help reduce susceptibility to robbery.

“The root issue is having all employees being aware at all times…of activities in and around [the pharmacy],” says Horrobin.

Dumo, owner of Novocare Pharmacy and former president of the Windsor-Essex Pharmacy Association, says that Novocare has never been robbed, but has at one point been “cased” by individuals who were planning a robbery. He says that by interacting with these people and letting them know that they had been noticed, they were able to prevent a crime from being committed.

Pharmacy robberies are a common occurrence throughout Canada and The U.S., and Dumo anticipates that the occurrences of these crimes “will go up in the near future.” It will soon become more difficult to get prescriptions for opiates, which will in turn raise the street value of the drugs and therefore the likelihood of robberies.

This prediction makes the launch of the WPS Risk Assessment tool that much more important, causing Horrobin and Dumo to urge local pharmacies to use the checklist.

“If we want to stop robberies regionally we need a regional rollout,” says Dumo, pointing out the importance of a team effort to prevent more crimes.

“Everybody has to do it…otherwise the places that don’t become very high risk,” agrees Horrobin.

Barry Horobin, Windsor Police Director of Planning and Physical Resources (R) going through the Pharmacy Physical Risk Assessment tool with Novocare Pharmacy owner Peter Dumo.