Has anyone held "mock robbery" training or surprise burglary to simulate a burglary during bank opening procedures. Any pro's or con's on this issue?

I would think that any simulations should clearly be made known to everybody involved prior to implementation. Robberies are very scary things and to surprise your staff with a mock robbery would definitely not be well received, IMO.

We use to do them until one of our loan officers pulled a 357 out of the bottom of his desk during one. Good thing the manager (who knew ahead of time) was standing right on top of him when he did it. Like the Dude said - make sure everyone (and I mean everyone) knows ahead of time.

Thank you all for your reply. I have advised our branch mgr. of these possibilities and have asked that she coordinate her efforts with the local P.D. in advance and get approval from her area pres. before conducting the exercise. Thanks, again.

And don't forget that how terrible you'd feel if someone dropped dead with a heart attack during a "mock" hold-up.

If you just absolutely feel the element of surprise is needed, please do it gently.

You can also have a previously arranged incident to occur during a meeting and have everyone tell what they saw. We had someone come into the meeting and ask to see a particular person. Employees then had to describe the individual and what that individual did and said while in the room. It's a safer way to see how much the employees were paying attention to details of what was going on around them than staging a robbery.

It was amazing to see how many different descriptions there were of the individual, and not everyone heard the same thing either.

A friend of mine worked at a bank that did a "Mock robbery" but they did not forewarn everyone. Needless to say 2 people quit and a customer was caught off guard as well. Not good.

In the past, I've been a particpant of an "Interuption Awarness" training. During a meeting, someone came in and asked for someone and left. Then each person had to write down a discription of the person and we compared information. It is interesting to see how many variations are identified.

Mock Robberies can be a great training tool - see my comments in the Private Section.

Please check your PM

A lot of folks don't like them. I did. But I think everyone needs notice, including the local PD. They can be a more constructive learning tool than a surprise party.

Folks,

This topic receives frequent attention -- and none of it is luke-warm. Search for "mock robbery" for other threads and more examples.