Property crimes, of theft or vandalism, are inherently wrong: they deprive hardworking people of the products of their own efforts, to the benefit of the dishonest, destructive, or shiftless.
When those crimes come with a threat of personal violence against their victims, they are even more serious. (Here one speaks of actual, verifiable threats, not imagined or tenuously inferred ones.)
At our Walgreen’s someone made a demand for prescription drugs; he may have also threatened violence to obtain them, although that fact has not be disclosed, by newspaper accounts (1, 2) of Whitewater’s robbery.
In press releases from other cities where similar crimes have occurred recently, some of those police departments have disclosed that the robbers threatened or implied violence by claiming to be armed. The Janesville, Fitchburg, and Madison police departments issued press releases about similar robberies at Walgreen’s pharmacies. The Delavan Police Department also asked for assistance through the press for help with such a robbery.
Of those four other cities, three – Fitchburg, Madison, and Delavan – stated that the robber implied or threatened force. (The Janesville press release makes no mention of a threat, but does state that no weapons were displayed during the robbery.)
Yet, of this one can be confident: at no time should anyone – let alone an official of the city – suggest or encourage, as in paragraphs 22-26 of a newspaper interview, that an ordinary resident should directly approach or question someone who might fit the robber’s description or during similar circumstances to these pharmacy robberies.
Notifying trained authorities promptly but discretely will always be the most prudent course; anything else is both uncertain and ill-considered. One might successfully act otherwise, but it’s not sensible to encourage that risk, generally, among residents.
There’s no other reasonable way to see this.