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The police are tackling each of the robberies as an isolated job, but some common characteristics are evident. Referring to the two art thefts, Giles Waterfield, director of the Dulwich Gallery, notes that "they relied on the same techniques, ignoring the alarm and calculating that they could get in and out within three to four minutes." In both the Conduit Street and the Security Express robberies, the criminals brandished guns and threatened the staff with violence; the thieves may also have had inside information or help. Says Frank Cater, commander of Scotland Yard's Flying Squad, which concentrates on armed robbery in London: "Crime is as much a business as any other. Criminals have progressed over the years, using more sophisticated techniques and going in for a greater degree of planning."
The thieves' professionalism and the use of guns are explained partly by the change at the top of Britain's crime hierarchy. "In the past three years a completely new way of thinking has entered the criminal fraternity's activities," explains a former convict. "The fellows who are involved in these armed robberies are not basically criminal—they have not graduated through the various criminal classes as the usual criminal has. They have not knocked off a corner grocery store and then held up vans and so on working up to the big jobs. What we are seeing now is different. Somebody has come up with an angle on how to pull job, a special way of robbing a place. Then they go out and hire specialists." The gangs work together in regular "firms,' headed by a few "Mr. Bigs," who plan, organize and mastermind many of the robberies. Even if the police know who these crime brains are, proving it in a court of law appears to be quite another matter.