Bank and credit union robberies – 2006 vs. 2007
The FBI just released its fourth-quarter robbery data for banks and credit unions. Rather than wait for the FBI to tabulate four quarters and publish its findings, The Financial Brand added it all up and broke it all down for you.
Here’s the raw data for 2007, quarter-by-quarter:
Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | TOTALS
Total bank and credit union robberies down 11.4%
2006 – 6,675
2007 – 5,917
Bank robberies down 11%
2006 – 6,154
2007 – 5,468
Credit union robberies down 14%
2006 – 521
2007 – 449
Injuries occur in 1.3% of all robberies
2006 – 94 incidents
2007 – 74 incidents
Employees are the most likely to be injured
2006 – 75 employees injured
2007 – 49 employees injured
Number of robberies in which deaths occurred
2006 – 13
2007 – 16
Robber is the most likely one to die
2006 – 10 robbers of 13 people killed
2007 – 12 robbers of 18 people killed
The data serves as a reminder that there are ways to engineer safe branch environments without creating “fortresses.” In the comments of The Financial Brand’s previous coverage of the FBI’s 2006 robbery data, Brett Conway of EHS Design suggested checking out SafeCatch, a branch design solution that minimizes risk of robbery. If your branches have security features like bullet-proof glass, you should definitely give it a look.
SafeCatch gets into robber psychology, recommending that front doors should not be visible from the transaction area because robbers always want to keep an eye on their exits. Good point.
The downloadable PDF includes a sample floor plan.
This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.
Related Articles From The Financial Brand:
- Bank Robberies on Decline Despite Rotten Economy
- Freeze! The Cold Hard Facts on Bank Robberies in 2009
- Put the ‘Milk’ in the Back of Your Branches
- Steal This Idea: The Ultimate Conversation Starter
As a former teller, and one who has had a gun held to her head, I can say that this is really important stuff.
I would be remiss if I did not also add that we still pay tellers “squat” AND now require them to “cross-sell” our 48 products and services in addition to balancing to the penny, stand on their feet all day, be personable…..and be in the line of fire.
Nice to see these stats are actually going down. Seems like every day on my google alerts I read about another credit union robbery.
That’s right Denise. We hear about robberies all the time, which radically inflates our fears. We envision masked men storming the vault while jamming shotguns in people’s teeth. Hollywood. Most robbers quietly pass notes.
If you’ve got a branch in a relatively low-income urban area, two freeways within a half mile, and your transaction zone is 25 feet from the entrance, you may be facing a very real robbery risk. The odds this branch gets robbed is way higher than others, but even then, statistics say an injury will only occur in 1 out of 100 times the branch is robbed.
It’s a branding question for sure. Do you place the safety of your employees over the atmosphere and environment you’d rather provide to your members/customers?
Have you ever been in one a branch with bullet proof glass? It’s viscerally uncomfortable. Everyone is yelling at each other through the glass. I’m certainly not screaming my Social Security Number.
I’ve seen branches with bullet proof glass where the tellers had little bits of scrap paper for members to write down their sensitive information. That’s not “relationship building.”
[...] else I can help you with today?” As The Financial Brand has previously noted (here, and again here), this completely throws a would-be robber off his M.O.: “Crap! I’ve been noticed. [...]