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Bank Robbery A National Problem

by Bill Wipprecht

Bill Wipprecht is Security Director of Wells Fargo Bank NA, in San Francisco, and a member of the ABA Security & Risk Management Committee. He gives presentations nationwide to bankers and law enforcement on security matters and will be doing a workshop on robbery at the BAI Conference in April. This was to be the final installment of his three part series on Robbery, but we decided to make it a four part-the final column on Robbery will appear next month. What Bill has to say is too important to cut... On August 7, 1992, three men entered the Wells Fargo Bank Larchmont Office in Los Angeles armed with semi-automatic weapons. Using vile profanity, and forcing everyone to lie on the floor, one robber put a gun to the manager's head and ordered him to open the vault.

The manager convinced the robber he could not open the vault alone, so a teller was dragged by the hair to the vault.

Still unable to get into the vault quickly, the three robbers grabbed $4,500 in cash from the drawers and fled the banking office, car-jacking a car from a passing motorist.

$50,000 Reward
Wells Fargo immediately offered a $50,000 reward for the suspects and ran a full-page ad in the form of a wanted poster in the Los Angeles Times-"Wanted for Armed Robbery". The surveillance photographs were so good, and the reward so attractive, that the FBI knew the names of two of the three bandits within 48 hours!

Perhaps Wells Fargo Security Manager Dennis Herzog said it best. "There's no honor among thieves. These people will rat each other off if given a chance. We're giving them a $50,000 chance of a lifetime."

Reverse The Trend
Offering rewards is just one of the many things financial institutions must do to reverse the spiraling national robbery trend. In 1991 eight of the largest fifteen cities in the U.S. set new records for bank robberies. And 1992 looks like it's going to be another bank-robbing, record-setting year.

The FBI estimates that over 80% of all bank robberies are drug related, committed by users who are also well known to be unpredictable and prone to violence.

Combine this with well-armed teen-age gang members who seek money to finance gang activities or to enter the drug business or even to enhance their reputation as a "shooter".

It makes robbery a potentially more violent crime than it has been since the days of John Dillinger.

Bank Robbery Is The Crime Of The 90's
Nationally, everyone agrees the robbery crime wave is not going to diminish soon. Bank robbery has become the real crime of the '90s. ATM crimes and car-jackings continue to generate a lot of local and national publicity but bank robbery is, and always has been, the most commonplace violent crime which day after day terrorizes financial institutions across the country.

Unfortunately, within our own industry, there are no immediate or direct solutions for stopping drug-crazed bank robbers and gangs who use young boys with guns to terrorize employees and customers. The solution must be a multi-faceted commitment between the financial industry, federal and local law enforcement, and the citizens of the community.

Strategies & Attitudes
Some security strategies for the '90s that could be considered to reverse the robbery trend are described as follows:
The first thing banks, savings and loans and credit unions must do is change some of their attitudes which >
Causes Of Bank Robberies
The causes of the steady increase in bank robberies are readily identifiable-growing population; increased number of branches and banking offices; extended days and hours of operation; easy access to cash; no resistance to demand; little immediate risk; reduced efforts by law enforcement; severe drug usage by a small percentage of our population; and, most recently, gang involvement.

It appears to me that the days of the friendly, open banking environment are declining at a rapid pace.

No financial institution is immune to being robbed.

Financial institutions should publicly adopt a "get tough" attitude to change our "park and rob" image. Recently, the California Bankers Association issued an industry statement declaring "the banking industry is outraged by the number of bank robberies and will not tolerate the abuse of its employees and customers."

All financial institutions must take the same pro-active and tenacious public position with the press. If we take and publicize a tough stance, we can solidify our image as institutions the bad guys don't want to mess with.

Two Simple Precautions
Two simple actions your financial institution can take are to keep teller cash to a minimum and close the vault door during business hours.

Now, just reading that sentence made some head tellers and managers throw their hands up in dismay! But the fact is, the more money you give away, the more likely you will be robbed again.

Financial institutions should publicly adopt a "get tough" attitude to change our "park and rob" image. Maintaining or reducing teller cash limits requires a little additional effort. But the payoff will be noticed when the bandit who robbed you is captured at another institution and tells the police he changed targets because he could get more money across the street in their office than he could at yours.

Closing the vault door simply provides the robber with the visual image that the big dollars are locked behind tons of steel and it's going to take a concerted effort and additional time to get to it. Thus, the robber's risk of apprehension is increased because of additional time in the banking office. Most robbers do not want confrontation. They're usually out the door in less than 90 seconds.

In most cases the robber will want to patronize the competition across the street because he knows their vault is always open. He can get more cash there and make a quicker get-away.

Guards-good Or Not Good?
Uniformed guards always generate a lot of conversation among security directors.

It seems that nobody loves them, they're expensive, provide little added value to the staff and some guards themselves are of questionable character.

But, historically, the mere presence of a uniformed guard is often enough to deter many bank robbers.

Armed? Or Unarmed?
In my opinion, uniformed guards should always be unarmed and assigned on a temporary, as needed, basis. Unarmed because the majority are not physically trained or mentally prepared to carry or use a firearm in a desperate situation.
And temporary because robbers come and go.

It's not unusual for a robber to strike twice at the same location or trade off information on successful hits with their pals-in jail or outside. Often, stationing a uniformed guard for as little as 30 days in a banking office that has been robbed (and the robber has gotten away) is enough to deter the second robbery from happening there. The mere presence of the uniformed guard often influences the robber to strike another institution.

Once the police apprehend the robber the problem is usually resolved and the guard is no longer required.

Sometimes though, even a uniformed guard is not enough.

To be continued?

In our final column, we'll take a look at armed guards and other methods of robbery prevention.

Copyright © 1992 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 3, No. 7, 12/92

First published on 12/01/1992

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