The bill originally placed before the New York City Council in 2009 to require banks to install bullet-resistant barriers in all local branches expired on December 31. Councilman Oliver Koppell is preparing, however, to reintroduce the bill to the Council stating, “I’ve been very adamant about passing this bill.”
When it was originally introduced, the bill met strong opposition from the New York State Bankers Association and TD Bank, specifically. “The Police Department said that even though banks without barriers represented only 10 percent of the city’s banks, 53 percent of the bank robberies last year (2008) occurred in those branches.”
Read “Serial Bank Robber – Still at Large – Linked to Queen Heists” by Joe Kemp, http://www.nydailynews.com.
Read “Police Want Bandit Barriers in New York City’s Banks” by Michael Wilson, http://www.nytimes.com.
