12 Security Measures Banks Use to Combat Robbery

Banks have more security threats today than they did in the days of train robberies in the Wild West. With that in mind, they must now take different measures to combat and discourage robberies. Those listed below are common security measures many banks have adopted in order to do just that.

1) Building high teller counters with barriers. These barriers prevent robbers from jumping over the counters.

2) Hiring on duty security guards. Security guards serve as a visual assurance of protection for patrons and a crime deterrents for people who would rob the banks.

3) Utilizing surveillance cameras inside the bank and out to record possible robbers and in the hopes of identifying them. Since most people setting out to rob banks do so in the hopes of getting away with it, they are likely to skip banks with active surveillance.

4) Placing GPS tracking devices in money bags. GPS tracking devices allows the banks to track the progress of the money once it leaves the banks and has allowed law enforcement to track the money and the thieves.

5) Putting dye packs in with the money. This one isn’t as great for tracking the money but is extremely useful when it comes to identifying the money that was stolen and, in many cases, the person who stole the money as well.

6) Establishing “man traps” that trap robbers between an exterior and interior set of doors. Robbers go in, but they can’t come out – until proper law enforcement officers arrive to arrest them.

7) Requiring customers to remove clothing and accessories that obscure their faces. Taking off things like hats, scarves, sunglasses, etc. allows the cameras to capture better images and make identifications of robbers easier – something most thieves aren’t interested in.

8) Employing people to serve as customer greeters. These people meet, greet, and identify banking customers as they come in the door so that there is no anonymity for robbers.

9) Educating people who might be tempted to rob banks. The fact is that most thieves believe they will hit pay dirt when robbing a bank and that’s simply not true. Educate them about the actual amount of money they’re likely to get, the likelihood of their arrests, and the types of sentences they’re likely to receive if arrested. After all, prevention is the best cure.

10) Using sequentially numbered bills. This is often referred to as “bait money” and it is used in robberies in hopes of leading the banks to the offenders based on the serial numbers of the currency involved.

11) Engaging cash dispensing units for dispensing money. Banks that use CDUs limit the amount that can be stolen in a robbery by reducing the amount of money tellers can dispense and forcing them to leave their stations to do so.

12) Offering rewards for information that leads to the capture of thieves. There’s nothing quite as tempting as a decent reward to get people to do the right thing and report others who may have stolen from the bank. Fortunately, banks are catching on to that important fact.

Banks are more vulnerable to robbery today, in some ways, because they sit in one place and aren’t continuously on the move. Banks that use these security measures to combat robbery, though, will reduce their attractiveness to thieves and the yield thieves receive if they are robbed.

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