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'Welcome To Our Bank! How Can I Help Foil Your Robbery?'

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By NICOLA M. WHITE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 9, 2007

ZEPHYRHILLS - When you think of bank safety, you likely think of bulletproof glass, dye packs and hidden buzzers underneath a teller's window.

Think again. There's a new wave in bank security these days - what one FBI agent refers to as 'customer service on steroids.'

For years, banks have instructed their tellers to look out for their own safety when approached by a bank robber. If a thief slips a note demanding cash, tellers often are trained to fork it over and press the alarm button once the robber leaves.

The result, in some law enforcement officers' eyes, has been a rash of brazen bank robbers who think they can get away with the perfect crime.

'It's 'Hey, don't do anything. Just get the guy out of the bank, and let the police do their job,'' said FBI agent Larry Carr, the bank robbery coordinator for the Seattle area. 'But when you analyze it, you think, 'Why didn't you do something?''

That's where the Safecatch program comes in. Carr developed Safecatch two years ago when bank robberies in Washington topped 300 per year. Since then, bank robberies have dropped 45 percent, to fewer than 200 - a 20-year low.

Twenty-seven regional Washington banks and Bank of America in Washington have implemented the program. Carr has trained more than 250 bank branches.

This month, the program spread all the way to Zephyrhills, where Zephyrhills police Officer Rob McKinney trained one local bank branch to use the Safecatch program.

'What you're looking for is something simple to implement, but with a basis in reality,' said McKinney, the department's crime prevention supervisor. 'When I saw the background and talked to the FBI agent, he has a track record that shows this works. It's basically using common sense.'

McKinney trained workers at the Zephyrhills branch of the San Antonio Credit Union and said he plans to contact other local banks. McKinney is the only Florida law enforcement officer to call about the program, Carr said.

Without giving away too much information, here's how one part of the program works:

Employees are trained to be extra vigilant and nice to customers walking through the bank's doors. Banks often station greeters in the lobby.

Some Friendly Banter

If a suspicious-looking customer walks in - bank robbers often wear hats, sunglasses or some sort of disguise - the greeter keeps up a friendly banter.

'Hi. Welcome. You look like you might be a new customer. Would you like to open up an account? I can help you over here at this desk. Can I see some identification?'

Such attention likely would scare off a would-be bank robber. Often, that's exactly what happens, said Carr, who has spent months interviewing jailed bank robbers.

This approach is feasible, Carr said, because it treats all customers the same.

'The new customer thinks, 'Great, I don't have to wait in line.' The bank robber experiences paranoia, fear and escape,' he said. 'This is a customer relations development program with a bank robbery suppression nexus.'

The approach may not sound like groundbreaking crime-fighting, but for an industry that hasn't changed its practices in decades, Carr's ideas, which have received national press, have really shaken things up.

Two years ago, while making a presentation at a bankers conference in Oregon, Carr suggested tellers call 911 for faster police response time instead of pressing those secret buzzers. The panel moderator immediately cut him off and told him his presentation was over, he said.

Others have accused Carr's program of putting bank tellers in danger.

Not so, if people use common sense, Carr says. If a bank robber is violent or brandishes a gun, the 'customer service on steroids' approach obviously won't work. It also wouldn't work for bank takeover situations.

Note-Passing Technique

Ninety percent of bank robberies, though, are committed by note-passing, he said.

Tuesday morning, Carr investigated a bank robbery he said was a perfect illustration of how the program works.

Just after 10:30 a.m., a man in a raincoat, gloves, hat and sunglasses walked into a suburban Seattle branch of First Mutual bank. Employees there had been trained in the Safecatch program. Two employees outside immediately knew something was wrong. They locked eyes with the suspicious man.

He walked up to the bank entrance, saw the women and did an about-face.

He went to the bank next door. Even though the man was overdressed for a summer morning, no one in the bank acknowledged what Carr calls 'the gift of fear' - knowing something's wrong and taking action. The man robbed that bank.

'Here you have to situations, two different mindsets,' he said. 'One prevented a robbery. Another one has a victim who will have nightmares tonight.'

Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or nwhite1@tampatrib.com.

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