Bank Robberies Down In '09

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jan 4, 2010 3:40PM

As stats for 2009 continue to roll in, one bright spot is that bank robberies in the City of Chicago were down 30 percent last year over 2008's inordinately high number. 2008's total of 277 robberies fell just short of the city's record - 284 in 2006 - but the unofficial tally from 2009 currently stands at 190, the FBI told WBBM; an official number for 2009 should be released within the next week. Earlier this year, the FBI, CPD, and Cook County Sheriff's office worked with Dallas-based Electronic Tracking Systems (ETS) to create the Bandit Tracker to help spread information on area robberies.

So why are robberies down, something that seems to be counter-intuitive given the economy in 2009? The Trib's Jeff Coen got some answers from the FBI:

FBI spokesman Frank Bochte said there are several factors at work, including that the bureau arrested a number of serial robbery suspects last year. For example, just one, the appropriately named Jose Banks, was suspected in 21 robberies before he was arrested in 2008.

Bochte said the slow economy also has seen the closing of some far-flung bank branches that seemed to crop up everywhere earlier in the decade. Some of them were vulnerable and attractive for holdups, and the FBI had said they were partially to blame for 2006's record 284 bank robberies here.

The FBI also credits the decrease to more banks having better digital security cameras that produce clearer images for law-enforcement officials to track down robbers. "People are seeing that if you walk into a bank to rob it, you're going to have a very nice photo taken of you," Bochte said. "That's a deterrent."

If the figure of 190 robberies stands, it'll be the city's lowest yearly total since 2004.