Using Armed Guards or Escorts
Question: We have a couple of branches in what are considered high-risk locations. One has already been hit with a 'morning-glory' robbery during the opening procedures. Staff has asked if it would be possible to have armed guards during the opening and closing of the branch, and to even possibly escort them during that time. What is your view of this?
Question: My bank is looking to cut expenses anywhere it can, and they are objecting to my use of two people to service remote, free standing ATMs. Their point is that if we didn't keep a full time person to be the second person on the runs, we could eliminate one teller position. As it is, sending two people out takes each of them off the job for several hours. I can't (won't!) send one person alone to do the settlement, but I might be able to hire an escort just for the servicing times. Do you know of any other financial institutions doing this?
Answer: Because the two questions are related, I've chosen to respond to both at the same time. Hiring escorts and/or armed guards is certainly one of the answers to these two problems. But that choice carries a certain amount of risk.
First, you'd want to be certain that the guard is qualified and trained. Hiring from a reputable, armed guard service company is better than not, but still requires background checks and verification. Hiring such a person will not be inexpensive, so the cost savings may not be as considerable as you might figure. Hiring someone who is not qualified, but less costly could be extremely foolish. You've increased the chances of someone getting hurt.
Secondly, hiring such an escort puts you, as a security officer, in an unusually vulnerable position. If there is an incident and an exchange of gunfire and your employee is injured, or worse - killed - will you be responsible for putting the employee in a dangerous position - one that you knew was dangerous because you hired an armed guard?
Assuming all goes well for the time the armed guard is in service, there is no problem. However, if, in the future, you make the decision to discontinue the service, and something happens after that time, it may possibly be determined that the employee was placed in danger by the removal of the "protection."
If you are on conversant terms with local law enforcement, you could ask them to do a "drive-by" during opening and closing of the branch, or servicing of the ATM. I found that to be the most reasonable of the solutions when I dealt with the same problems, or, of course, your safest method for your ATM problem would be to out-source servicing.
You also might consider the least expensive solution of all - the cell phone. Having someone on the other end of a cell phone during the entire opening and closing procedure, or during the servicing of an ATM, is priceless insurance. Done properly, always, always with no less than two people, branch opening and ATM servicing can be done with a minimum of risk to the employee. The key is in training and adhering to procedures. I don't know of any financial institutions that have instituted the use of escorts to open and close a branch, or to accompany an employee to service a machine - but maybe our readers know of such and will let us know.
Copyright © 2004 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 13, No. 11, 1/04
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