Taken from NYTimes.com.
By: Al Baker
One bank robber is aggressive. He always waves a black or silver pistol. He often pulls a scarf over his face and shouts orders to the tellers.
Robbing a bank with partial “bandit barriers,” the thief passed a note and got cash, the police say.
Five days later, at a bank without barriers, the police say, the thief again used a note and got cash.
The other is more passive. He passes notes across the counter and walks away if rebuffed. He wears a hat and glasses and strikes mostly late in the day.
The police say these two men have hit bank branches 24 times in New York City this year, and are largely why the number of bank robberies, after surging last year, is on track to be even higher in 2009.
“We’ll get them,” said Deputy Inspector Charles P. Neacy, sitting at 1 Police Plaza with files on the two robbers in his hands. “As they keep doing them, we are able to pick up additional evidence, whatever it might be.”
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has expressed concern over the frequency of bank robberies and the seeming ease in carrying them out, particularly at certain branches. He met in January with executives of major banks to push a set of “best practices” for security that were developed in 2003, during the last wave of robberies. Inspector Neacy, who commands the Major Case Squad, has followed up with branch managers.
Now, in the face of a surge, Mr. Kelly said he might push for a city law first contemplated six years ago to require dividers of reinforced glass between customers and tellers, along with other measures he believes would help deter the crimes and lead to more arrests.
He said that he was happy with the cooperation he was getting from most banks, but that he had met some resistance from TD Bank, which detectives say is vulnerable because of an environment bank officials see as more inviting than daunting, with open counters and no partitions. “I am not satisfied with their response,” the commissioner . . . → Read More: Police Stress Deterrence Measures as Bank Robberies Surge in the City
