Fighting Unauthorized Withdrawals

In the Greater Los Angeles area, with all its crime problems, it is the stickup numbers that stick out the most.

In recent years fully a quarter of all the bank robberies in America have occurred in the FBI’s L.A. region. And last year Los Angeles outdid itself, accounting for 29% of all bank holdups nationwide.

Los Angeles is still the nation’s bank robbery leader, but our margin, thankfully, is shrinking. And that’s a tribute to hard work, especially by the FBI and some of the banks.

Three major California banks--Bank of America, Wells Fargo and First Interstate--have been leaders in spending for security measures designed to foil bank robbers, including those heavy plastic bandit barriers one sees increasingly. In addition, the FBI and the U.S. attorney offices in the region have come down hard on serial bank robbers. The FBI now meets regularly with bank security officials and law enforcement agencies.

It would seem that all this focused work is paying off. For the first time in six years bank robberies are down. The drop, in fact, has been dramatic: 35%--representing 631 fewer robberies between January and August of this year than in the same period of 1992.

Officials aren’t popping the champagne corks yet--but they surely will be justified in doing so if this downward trend continues; likewise the bank officials who are investing in security and working closely with the feds.

Is crime uncontrollable? Apparently not--with some hard work and a little money. And you can take that to the bank.