Drugstores urged to install panic alarms

A Suffolk lawmaker is pushing county pharmacies to install panic alarms, saying they've become critical in the wake of fatal shootings during two Long Island holdups.

Legis. Kate Browning (WF-Shirley) announced Tuesday that she wrote to all seven drugstores in her district, including chains, asking them to install the silent alarms.

Browning said she's received no responses to her Dec. 7 letters and that she's poised to introduce legislation mandating the alarms if pharmacies don't cooperate -- either by confirming that they'll install or consider alarms, or reporting that they already have them. "In this day in and age, it's a necessity," she said. "I'd like to think the local pharmacies would want to do it, because it's for the safety of their customers and employees."

Browning's call for action followed the Dec. 31 shootings at Charlie's Family Pharmacy in Seaford, where a robber who had stolen prescription painkillers and an off-duty federal agent were killed. That case came about six months after a man looking for hydrocodone painkillers murdered four people at Haven Drugs in Medford.

Last week, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano called on the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to help pharmacies enhance security, saying bulletproof glass, safes with timed locks and panic buttons could help stop robberies.

On Monday, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced a pharmacy safety initiative. Long Island Pharmacists Society president Joanne Hoffman Beechko, who joined Bellone at his news conference Monday, was skeptical about the push. "We don't need any more mandates," she said Tuesday. "We need ways to stop addiction."