It has happened twice in the past few months.
A Kenmore police chief and two Town of Tonawanda paramedics are suspected of stealing prescription drugs from Erie County Community Disposal Kiosk sites.
Erie County Commissioner of Health Dr. Gale Burstein says it is policy to have at least two law enforcement officials present when the boxes are emptied and drugs are weighed.
In these circumstances, Burstein says those policies were not followed.
"Unfortunately with these two occurrences, violations of the drug drop off kiosks were by people that had access to the keys and they weren't following the protocol," Burstein said. "There weren't two law enforcement officials supervising all the emptying and weighing of the pharmaceuticals."
The 38 kiosks are placed at mainly police departments throughout Erie County and are highly utilized.
"Last year in 2018 we collected and burned 26,500 pounds of pharmaceuticals and so far this year we have collected and burned over 7,000 pounds," said Burstein.
With the recent abuse, 2 On Your Side asked if it is time to reevaluate the system.
"Well I think in general this is a good way, a good strategy that we have," she said. However, Burstein added that changes need to be made at the police departments where the misuse happened.
"I know that the police departments that have had these challenges have reassessed their systems and made changes to prevent this from reoccurring," she said.
Burstein says the kiosk sites are important in fighting the opioid epidemic.
"We are so fortunate to have 38 drug drop off kiosks in Erie County. These are such an asset for our community cause it allows people to come 24/7, any time, any week and be able to anonymously drop off any pharmaceuticals that they have," she said.
More On WGRZ.com