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Banking association announces new measures to curb robberies Tuesday, Apr 24, 2007 By Jason Wiest Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A 30 percent rise in bank robberies statewide in 2006 and the state's first-ever bank robbery fatality last December have prompted the Arkansas Bankers Association to begin reward and robbery prevention programs, the association announced Monday. "We've had it," Larry Wilson, Arkansas Bankers Association chairman and president of First Arkansas Bank and Trust at Jacksonville, said at a news conference in the lobby of the Metropolitan National Bank building in downtown Little Rock. "As Arkansas bankers, we're extremely concerned about the high number of bank robberies." In response, Wilson and several Central Arkansas bankers, along with Bill Temple, FBI special agent in charge of the agency's Little Rock field office, announced two new programs Monday The association has begun a $5,000 reward fund for information leading to the successful prosecution of perpetrators. The FBI will be responsible for reward disbursements, Wilson said. Banks can display posters about the reward in their lobbies, he said. The association also is encouraging all Arkansas banks to display signs requesting that customers remove hats, hoods and sunglasses as they enter the institutions. "By doing so, they will draw attention to anyone who does not remove these items," Wilson said. "Hopefully this action will deter would-be bank robbers from following through with a robbery." Other states, including Nebraska, Oklahoma and Missouri, use similar programs. In the 12-month period prior to Missouri's implementation of the program in May 2003, the state had 125 bank robberies. In the year after beginning the program, there were 84. Arkansas had 51 bank robberies in 2006, compared to 39 in 2005. On Dec. 23, "the saddest day in Arkansas banking history," Wilson said, Metropolitan National Bank teller Jim Garison was shot to death by a robber. Garison's death prompted Arkansas bankers and the association to ban together in administering rewards, Wilson said. "It is incumbent upon us and bank leaders to do all in our power to ensure the safety of our employees and our customers," he said. Two weeks ago, a Greenbriar bank that Wilson oversees was robbed. "Our employees were abused physically and verbally and they are still struggling with the trauma of that event," Wilson said. Three men were apprehended after a high-speed chase and a five-hour manhunt. "Our solution rate over the last three years has been in excess of 70 percent," Temple said. "So far this fiscal year we're at about 66 percent so our solution rate is above the national average." |
