Banking on Technology

By SOLOMON MOORE

July 4, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Tellers at a San Bernardino bank branch looked up one day last fall to see three men--two dressed in camouflage and one in a business suit--trying to push through the glass-enclosed vestibule at the front of the bank. At the moment the men opened the first door the metal detector alarm buzzed and the bullet-resistant interior door automatically locked shut.

Defeated by one of the region’s newest security innovations, the puzzled trio turned around and walked away.

After watching the security tape, investigators determined that all three men were wearing body armor--a factor reminiscent of the notorious 1997 North Hollywood bank shootout--and at least one was armed with a rifle.

“I looked at the clock about five minutes later and thought: ‘By all rights we should be going through hell right now--and we’re not,’ ” recalled Cheryl D. Angello, a branch manager for the Business Bank of California’s East Highland Avenue office.

Through its use of cutting-edge security technology, Business Bank of California has contributed to the most dramatic drop in Southern Californian bank robberies in two decades. Advances in bank security, increased cooperation between industry and law enforcement officials and stiffer federal sentencing guidelines have put a crimp on robberies, security experts say.

According to recent FBI statistics, there were 749 bank robberies last year in the central federal district, which includes seven Southern California counties. That total was down 33% from 1996 and 250% from the region’s high of 2,641 robberies in 1992.

In 1996, 183 banks were robbed in Orange County, ahead of the entire state of New Jersey, which had 110.

Of the 144 bank robberies in Orange County last year, only 26 incidents were takeovers. This year 64 bank robberies have been committed in Orange County, 11 of which were takeovers.

This regional trend reflects national figures, which also show a downward turn--from 8,241 robberies in 1996 to 7,850 last year. Bank robberies in Los Angeles, excluding the San Fernando Valley, were down 60%. They were down 51% in both the Valley and Ventura County. Orange County has seen a 21% decline.

But with 3,500 bank branches, 17 million people and innumerable freeways and surface streets serving as getaway routes, Southern California still has more bank robberies than any other region. The decline has also been marked, however, by a substantial increase in the number of takeover robberies since 1994. “That’s the most disconcerting statistic with these bank robberies,” said one federal agent.

In takeovers, bandits take command of the business and everyone in it at gunpoint, usually shouting orders and brandishing weapons. The technique presents greater danger of gunplay than the alternative--quietly holding up a teller and fleeing before other customers know what is happening. Last year the FBI reported that about one-third of all Southland bank robberies were takeovers. In 1996 takeover robberies accounted for less than a quarter of the region’s heists. Violence has also increased, with seven deaths, four of whom were robbers, and 32 bank customers and employees being assaulted during robberies last year.

“These takeovers are an inheritance of the Brown-Thompson era,” said Special Agent William J. Rehder, head of the Los Angeles FBI bank robbery unit. Robert Sheldon Brown and Donzell Lamar Thompson made bank robbery history after they were implicated in 175 heists between 1989 and 1993. Both are serving time in federal prison, but Rehder said the pair devised the modern takeover robbery and inspired others to mimic their technique.

Brown enlisted youths, crack addicts and members of various gangs to conduct 85 bank robberies in which a note was presented to a teller, and later, 90 takeover robberies, Rehder said.

“All we were doing was stomping on forest fires and running from one robbery to the next--and we were on the run, I’ll make no excuse for that,” Rehder said.

Fueled by crack-cocaine-induced courage, lengthened banking hours and masterminds such as Brown, 1992 was the worst year ever for bank robberies in Los Angeles, with a different bank being hit every 42 minutes, Rehder said. “Things were almost out of control here.”

In response to the alarming number of robberies, law enforcement officials began frequent meetings with security experts from some of California’s largest financial institutions to swap tactics and devise new ways to combat bank bandits.

Guards Versus Barriers

Many time-honored security strategies benefit investigators after a robbery has occurred but do little to stop heists in the first place. Security cameras provide investigators with valuable footage of crimes in progress. Tracking devices and exploding red-dye packs often expose escaping robbers. But as violent bank robberies increase, bank executives are looking for more preventive measures.

In recent years, banks have boosted hiring of highly trained armed security guards, both in plainclothes and uniformed.

Undercover guards have the element of surprise on their side and can often stop robbers before they know they are being watched, advocates of this approach say. Two undercover Great Western Bank guards shot and killed one robbery suspect and wounded another last fall in a furious gun battle in Van Nuys. The guards, a retired Los Angeles police officer and a retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, saw the men drive up behind the bank, pull on ski masks and attempt to enter the building.

But some security experts say armed undercover guards are good only after a robbery starts, and do very little to deter it. Uniformed security guards are often used to deter would-be robbers.

Some banks are doing away with armed guards altogether, however, saying that their presence can escalate an already tense situation.

“I emphasize deterrence,” said Union Bank of California Vice President Stephen Ward. “You have a greater chance of somebody getting hurt with a guard than with a bandit barrier. Introducing another gun into another situation like that, you’re putting a lot of reliance on that guard’s judgment.”

The bandit barrier is a bullet-resistant glass shield between tellers and customers. FBI statistics indicate the barriers are extremely effective--last year there were only four robberies at bandit barrier locations in Southern California.

Critics of the barriers, which cost as much as $40,000, say they create an impersonal atmosphere and drive away customers. Others say they do nothing to prevent armed robbers from getting inside the bank, as was the case in the bloody North Hollywood bank robbery last year.

In that incident the two bandits bullied customers and shattered the glass shield at a Bank of America branch with a torrent of AK-47 rounds before they pillaged the vault. The siege ended after a furious gun battle on the streets with police that left several officers injured and both robbers dead.

Perhaps the most effective security device on the market is the access control unit, or ACU. After being repeatedly robbed, Business Bank of California installed the units in five of its six branches.

The units consist of vestibules enclosed in bullet-resistant glass with two sets of doors that lock automatically. The first door has to close and lock behind entering customers before they can open the interior door--but if the instrument detects metal, that door locks and an alarm sounds. The metal detectors, which scan for the mass and density of metal, are the same kind used at the doors of the heavily fortified U.S. State Department in Washington.

A big drawback, however, is the cost--$50,000 each (some buildings need more than one) plus the expense of structure modifications necessary for installation and personnel to monitor the door.

A Business Bank spokeswoman said none of its ACU-equipped branches has been robbed. California has become a proving ground for the security systems that have been installed in more than 30 financial institutions in the state--only about 125 have been sold nationally, according to Jim Etheridge, vice president of Ontario-based Hamilton Safe Inc. The company’s Ohio plant is the sole manufacturer of ACUs in the United States, Etheridge said.

Home Savings of America has purchased 50 of the units for Southern California and out-of-state branches since June 1996, making it the industry’s leading buyer of the system.

“From a cultural standpoint we haven’t felt bandit barriers were very customer friendly,” said Bob Stevens, vice president and corporate risk manager for Home Savings. “With an ACU, once you get in the branch you’re very free to move around and interact with customers.”

Most importantly, Stevens says ACUs have been 100% effective, a source of great comfort to workers.

“One of our branches outside of San Diego was robbed three times in a 12-month period with a takeover robbery . . . three or four guys brandishing automatic weapons, grabbing employees, one got their head shoved into a wall and pistol-whipped,” Stevens said. “We put in an ACU and it hasn’t been robbed since.”

The company plans to buy more of the units as needed, Stevens said.

Stiffer Sentences

Another factor in the decline of bank robberies is the uniform sentencing guidelines Congress enacted in 1987.

“Los Angeles became the bank capital of the nation in 1978--that was the first year we had over 1,000 robberies,” Rehder said. “In the 1980s judges saw so many of these cases that routinely their sentences were lower here in Los Angeles than they were in other districts, just because of the fact there was such a volume of these cases in front of them.

“Bank robberies became a relatively routine matter,” Rehder said.

These days, federal judges have less discretion than in the past because sentences are fixed to a complex mathematical computation based on a convict’s record, the type of crime committed, how many counts and other factors. Now, federal offenders usually have to serve up to 85% of their sentences.

Another factor, Rehder said, is the deterrent effect of recent foiled robberies covered by local media.

“Last year was the bloodiest year we’ve ever had,” he said. “We had seven people who were killed. . . . After the North Hollywood shootout takeover robberies in the Valley dropped to about zero for about four to five months.”

Southern California’s good news, however, may be coming at a cost to other areas. Rehder has seen an increase recently in calls from FBI field offices across the state and nation as bank robbers from Los Angeles have turned up in their towns, from Bakersfield to Indianapolis to Winston-Salem, N.C.

“These bandits are avoiding our area because the targets have been hardened,” Rehder said.

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Locking Out Crime

One of the reasons bank robberies are on the decline, experts say, is because of the increasing use of state-of-the-art preventive measures, such as an entrance control system. First developed in Italy, this double-door system resembling an airlock, is now in use at several Los Angeles-area banks, including some that have been targets of several robberies. A person wishing to enter has to wait for a green light on the outer door, signaling that the security cabin between the two doors is empty. Once inside, the person passes through a “weapon detection system” that scans for metal objects within certain mass and density criteria. Unlike airport detectors, this system is not likely to be set off by small objects. Also, an infrared unit scans the cabin to ensure there is only one adult present. If a potential problem is detected, security officials are alerted and can view the cabin via video camera. They might ask the person to place an object he or she is carrying on an observation tray, where it can be viewed by a close-up lens.

Entrance Control System:

Outside exit door: Will not open when inside exit door is open.

Outside entrance door: Will always allow exit.

Inside exit door: Will not open when outside exit door is open.

Inside entrance door will not open if:

1) more than one adult enters

2) a person is carrying a detected metal object

3) the outside entrance door is open

Total bank robberies in FBI’s Los Angeles district

1992: 2641

1997: 749

Percentage of bank robberies that are takeovers