Shoreline Police help bankers prepare for robberies

Whitney Saueressig and Nileshni Raj of the Highland Wells Fargo Bank pose with George Alvarez of the King County SWAT Team.  Photo by Diane Hettrick

Representatives of nine local banks from Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, and Kenmore met with Shoreline police on Wednesday morning, November 2, 2011, to get information about how to help police and themselves in the event of a bank robbery.

The session was originally set up to provide information to the banking community about the ongoing investigation into the recent violent "take-over" robberies in Shoreline, explained Operations Capt. Scott Strathy, but the robbers were arrested.

"We decided to have the meeting anyway, and use it to share information that would help the banking community help us to catch robbers more quickly."

For one thing, he continued, robbers don't recognize city boundaries, so we all need to be sharing information and working even more closely together. He introduced Detective Tony Matthews from Lake Forest Park, and Chief Cliff Seather from Kenmore. This applies to the banking community too. If one bank is robbed, all the other local banks need to be alerted.

Shoreline Chief Dan Pingrey said "We want to treat each bank as if it were one of our block watches, sharing information and alerts back and forth." He said that email is a good communication tool and told the bankers that if they would provide their email address, they would be added to the police alert system. "I'd like to see you communicating with each other about robbery threats and information."

He asked the bankers in the room to raise their hands if they had been in a bank while it was robbed. Almost every hand went up.

Banks most likely to be robbed are stand-alone buildings, and those along the Interstate or a highway.  Robbers may hit more than one bank in a day, or establish a pattern of robbing one bank a month.

While Capt. Strathy was talking two masked men burst into the room from a side door, rushed up to a woman sitting at the front, yelled at her to give them money, grabbed the money and ran out of the room. It was over in 30 seconds. Ok, said Strathy, you have been robbed. Fill out this form with the description of the robbers.

Several of the bankers did very well and the others were very quiet.

Before a robbery

Learn to be good observers. Police are trained observers, Strathy said, but you can train yourself. Detective Christina Bartlett, who was instrumental in solving the recent robberies, said, "Practice observation on your customers. Work top to bottom and practice learning how to describe people. Look at clothing, hair, skin color. Listen to their voices, their use of language. See how they move."

She said that in a crisis situation, people just shut down. If you have practiced, you are far more likely to be functional when a robbery happens.

Learn compass directions in relation to your bank

Supervisor Sue Chapin, from the Communications 911 Call Center, said that cops use north south east west designations. "Many bank workers don't know the directions in relationship to their workplace, and this is one of the first questions we will ask. What direction did they go?"

During a robbery

Be calm and cooperate

Hostage negotiator Dick Cooper said "A robber is already amped up. Don't do anything to set him off, because once shooting begins, things rarely end well." Be calm, keep him calm, and cooperate with everything he wants. Don't do anything to draw attention to yourself.

Throw Phone

If it turns into a hostage situation, be prepared for the hostage negotiator to use a "throw phone" which will come through the window. "Just know," he said, "that if the Hostage Negotiator is there, the SWAT team is too.

SWAT

Bank robberies rarely turn into a situation where the actual SWAT team is needed. However, said George Alvarez, member of the SWAT Team, if you are in a situation where an armed man is holding you with a knife to your throat, hold your head very still, so the police sniper can get a clear shot.

Immediately after the robbery

Tell everyone you have been robbed and the teller who was robbed should immediately call 911.

Sue Chapin said that in many bank robberies, only a few people in the bank know that a robbery has taken place. Typically, she said, the teller hits the silent alarm and the alarm company calls 911. The 911 dispatcher needs to talk to the actual teller who was robbed, and that, she said, can be surprisingly difficult. Dispatch will call the bank and no one knows there was a robbery. Do not put us on hold, she said. The teller will know if the robber displayed a weapon and police need to know that immediately.

Be safe first, but as soon as possible, look out the window. See what direction the robbers went. Look for them to get to their car, which is probably a block away. Every bank should have binoculars. If you see the car, get the best description you can. Look for distinguishing dents,marks, and stickers, as well as make and model.

Protect the Evidence. If there is any evidence, such as a dropped note, protect it and point it out to the first patrolman who comes in the door.

Follow up to a robbery

You will be interviewed many times by the police. This serves two purposes. It helps to map the memories for you. It will be eight months before the case comes to trial and you need to remember what you saw. The constant repetition and questioning also helps bring up other memories. For example, a question asked in a slightly different way may bring up a detail you had not thought of in the first interview. Other memories may surface as something triggers them such as a smell.

Self care

Being in a robbery is an abnormal and difficult situation and no one should try to tough it out. It is extremely important, said Chief Pingrey, to get help in the first 48 hours. Delay only makes it worse. Everyone reacts differently, he said, but everyone reacts and needs someone to talk to immediately. He offered to send a flyer to the bankers about what to expect in the first 48 hours. From a show of hands, it was clear that all banks offered counseling, but some were delayed as much as a month. Pingrey explained that he heads an internal unit in the King County Police that trains officers to offer peer counseling to officers who have been involved in traumatic situations. We offer that to any of you, he said to the bankers. The first 48 hours is critical.

Capt. Strathy closed the meeting, saying that partnerships are everything and shared information is the key to catching bad guys. Go ahead and call 911 if you see something odd in your bank. Almost all robbers case the banks before they actually rob it. One of the recent robbers spent ten minutes in the bank, picking up every pamphlet from the pamphlet rack. 

 "If you see something out of the ordinary in your bank, let us know."