Pass the Buck

Bank robberies are soaring

A stolen two-ton refrigerated fish truck lettered M. SLAVIN & SONS rolled into the underground garage of Chase Manhattan Bank's national headquarters in the Wall Street district last week carrying a cargo of armed robbers. Less than half an hour later, the truck drove out with over $2 million taken from a Brink's armored car. While the caper was the biggest and most professional of last week's heists in New York City, it was just one of 25 bank holdups in five days. New York's bank-robbery rate is up a whopping 27% so far over 1978's tally, and the national figures have jumped 13%. In California, which has some 30% of the nation's bank robberies, a new record was set on Aug. 10 for Los Angeles County: 12 robberies in a single day.

Why the epidemic of bank holdups? Simple enough: withdrawals are easy. For one thing there are more and more targets. As the number of banks and branches in the U.S. rose from 52,000 in 1968 to 90,000 today, the number of robberies soared from 2,040 in 1970 to 4,739 in 1978. Banks are often located close to highways and shopping centers, a convenience for robbers as well as customers. Tellers are trained to hand over the money in a holdup to avoid shootings, and even the guards are often instructed not to resist. As a result, notes FBI Special Agent Joseph Ryan, certain banks can be easier to rob than family grocery stores, where mom and pop sometimes fight back.

Today's bank robber usually is a male in his 20s who is unemployed and often has a drug problem. He tends to be a note passer who acts on the spur of the moment, then takes the money and runs. One Minneapolis robber collapsed on the street after sprinting from the bank with his take. Last week a laid-back San Francisco bandit robbed from one teller, then moved on to the new accounts desk, where he was arrested after trying to open a savings account. In Savannah, Ga., a robber was soon caught because the note he passed contained his name and Social Security number.

The long arm of the law does not protect banks the way it used to. Local police forces have been reduced, and the FBI, which used to pursue robbers zealously, is now concentrating on the more costly phenomenon of white-collar crime in banks. That strategy is questioned by New York City Police Commissioner Robert J. McGuire. A bank robbery, he says, "is a street crime that has an immediate impact on daily life." Few bank robbers end up in jail for long, which may be one reason that they commit a crime that does not pay all that well: the average take is about $1,500.

To protect its own, the American Bankers Association is holding seminars around the country on beefing up security. Rewards are rising for information leading to arrests. Many banks now use the dye pack, a bundle of money that releases red dye and smoke as a signal after the robber leaves the premises. Here and there police forces are deploying special units to fight the epidemic. New York City has set up three task forces of cops, including one that puts plainclothesmen in banks that seem likely to be robbed.

But one bank decided that discretion was the better part of valor. After a frightened teller in another New York City bank was killed last week, apparently for failing to act fast enough, Manhattan's Banco de Ponce posted a sign near the tellers' booths: "Attention would-be bank robbers. This is a Spanish-speaking bank. If you intend to rob us, please be patient for we might need an interpreter. Thank you, the Management."

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