Are bank robberies tied to the economy? Depends on who you ask

Ever since banks opened, people have been trying to figure out ways to rob them.

But two myths about bank robberies persist, experts say: There are more of them in a bad economy, and most of them get away with it.

The first problem for bank robbers: Banks and the FBI are focusing their efforts on how to nab more of them and deter thefts through technology and publicity.

"We're working on new secret ways to protect people and catch robbers," said Margot Mohsberg, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association.

The FBI now sends digital photographs of the robbers to the media quickly, sometimes the day of the robbery. And this month, the FBI will launch a new Web site, called Bandit Tracker Chicago, so the public can check on pictures of local suspects for themselves.

The FBI is applying something else to catch bank robbers: creativity.

To snag media attention, Ross Rice, a spokesman for the Chicago FBI office, makes up nicknames for unusual bank robbers.

Some of Rice's favorite nicknames from 2008:

• The Groucho Bandit: The robber wore a bushy black fake mustache.

• The Secondhand Bandit: The robber wore old clothes.

• The Time Bandit: The robber ordered his victims to count to 300 before moving.

• The Playboy Bandit: The heavyset man wore a baseball cap sporting the Playboy bunny

• The Lunch Bag Bandit: The suspect in at least six bank robberies since December places a brown paper bag on the counter when demanding money.

The names work, Ross said, getting more attention for photos of perpetrators and encouraging tips.

"If you have a good name, you'll get good coverage and it gets the public's attention," Rice said. "But you don't want to offend anyone. A while back, some police officers wanted to name a guy the 'Harry Caray Bandit' because he wore big glasses. But I thought it was disrespectful."

Rice did name a 5-foot, 10-inch man dressed in a black and pink floral print dress the "Cross-dressing Bandit" after he robbed the MB Financial Bank in Park Ridge last August. For his disguise, the man also donned a pink, wide-brimmed sun hat, long white cloth gloves and white sandals. He carried an oversized black purse - and a handgun.

In another step to deter robbers, some banks are asking customers not to wear hats or sunglasses.

Other banks are using a system called "man trap" - secret metal detectors in bank lobbies, Mohsberg said.

None of this is good news for bank robbers.

"People think it's a quick way to get lots of money," Mohsberg said. "But really, it's a bad idea - a federal crime, and usually people get caught."

Like, three out of four robbers get caught around here. In northeastern Illinois, the FBI solves 75 percent of all bank robberies - not very good odds for anyone looking for a long-term career. Nationally, that figure is 60 percent.

So how about the theory that the number of bank robberies increases in a bad economy?

Nonsense, the FBI and other experts say.

"Even during the (Great) Depression, most crime stats went down," said Robert McCrie, who has been studying bank robberies for 30 years and is a professor of security management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "The exception being homicides in some areas of the country, but that mostly had to do with turf wars over Prohibition."

Locally, bank robberies peaked in 2006.

In 2008, there were 284 bank robberies in Chicago and surrounding suburbs, up from 245 in 2007 but down from 300 in 2006, the FBI's Rice said.

And while bank robberies do tend to spike in November and December for no apparent reason, Ross doesn't blame the economy - although it's tempting.

"I've been asked that 100 times, but when you look at the numbers, the record came in 2006 when the economy was pretty good and unemployment was low," he said.

But not everyone agrees with McCrie and Rice.

"When the economy takes a nose dive, the numbers go up," the bankers association's Mohsberg said.

Nationally, the number of bank robberies peaked in 1992, declined and spiked again during the economic downturn in 2001. After several years on the decline, the number of robberies is once again on the rise.

McCrie said that may have to do with the changing image of banks. It's pretty much common knowledge that if a robbery occurs, bank employees are told to comply with the robber and quickly hand over the money to avoid problems, he said.

Compare that to decades ago, when banks were seen as fortresses armed with guards. Today banks are all about convenience and are often located in strip malls, he said.

"Here in New York, there has been an increase in bank robberies while overall robberies have gone down and I think it has to do with security," he said. "Banks today have taken down many of the barriers between the customers and tellers. It's all about customer service."

In a way, it has to be, Mohsberg said.

"Banks do have to be customer-friendly," she said.

And the risk to customers from robberies is slight, even if traumatic for the employees.

According to Mohsberg, 96 percent of all robberies are nonviolent. And in 2006, in 13 robbery-related deaths, the perpetrators were the ones who died.

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