How security changed
- 1930sThe main defenses are a heavy door and an alarm linked to the police. The money is in the branch, and the getaway car leaves faster than the patrol can arrive.
- 1970sCameras, dye packs and time-delay safes appear: a teller physically cannot hand over the money right away.
- 1990sBulletproof partitions, panic buttons and limits on the amount kept in the till. The average haul falls, but the risk stays the same.
- TodayThere is little cash in branches, ATMs are replenished on a schedule, and money itself increasingly exists only as a record.
The key point is the third one. When the amount in the till is limited, robbery stops being worth the risk: the sentence remains long, but there is little to take - the economics of the crime collapse.
A time-delay safe works just as ruthlessly. Even if the teller fully cooperates, the money will not appear for several minutes, and several minutes are exactly what the robber does not have.
Why these cases get solved
A bank is the most closely monitored place in the city. There is a face, a height, a walk, a license plate, a time down to the second and dozens of witnesses specifically trained to remember. No other crime leaves this much evidence.
Add dye packs that activate on the way out and marked bills. Even a successful escape from the building does not mean the robber will be able to spend the loot.
The crime itself has not disappeared, though - it has moved. Where you once had to walk through a door, now access to someone else's account is enough, and bank security has shifted to where the money now lies.
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Sources
- The decline in branch robberies is linked to limits on cash in tills, time-delay safes, dye packs and widespread video recording
- these crimes are among those with the highest clearance rates