When Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker robbed banks during their legendary two-year crime spree in the 1930s, they did so in part because it was easy. America was a more trusting place, and small-town banks offered unprotected targets and quick getaways. Now, 63 years later, a rapidly growing number of criminals appear to have again decided that robbing banks is easy money--against considerable evidence to the contrary.
After five years of steady decline, the number of bank robberies in the U.S. shot up abruptly in 1996, and has accelerated so sharply in the first three months of 1997 that many cities are experiencing record levels of such crime. In Dallas a bank is robbed almost every other day. At that rate, last year's total of 52 bank jobs will be surpassed in April, while the bank-robbery rate for north and west Texas is expected to jump 200% this year.
And Texas is not alone. In Durham, North Carolina, 10 banks were robbed in January and February, compared with 14 all last year. In 18 counties in central Florida, robberies are already up 61%. Since January, there have been rashes of robberies in Houston, Atlanta, Detroit and Orlando, Florida. And this comes on top of big jumps last year: Colorado, up 65%; Arizona, up 68%; Virginia, three times the level of 1994. Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, which had not had a bank robbery for almost two years, has suffered four in the past four months.
In the tradition of Bonnie Parker, more women are getting in on the act: a solo female robber terrorized banks in Marin County, California, in late 1996; last month in Maryland, a 14-year-old girl under suspension from school was recorded by a bank camera claiming to have a weapon and ordering the tellers to "just do it." And in a string of heists in several states, a mother sat calmly with her three-month-old baby daughter listening to the police monitor while her husband robbed banks.
The most worrisome new development is the so-called takeover robbery, in which an armed gang holds tellers and customers hostage. On Feb. 28, a commando-style assault on a Bank of America branch led to a firefight on the streets of North Hollywood, California, in which two robbers died and dozens of police and bystanders were wounded. In Orange County, California, 17 such takeover robberies occurred last year, up 140% from 1994.
Meanwhile, despite new security technologies, the apprehension rate for bank robberies has held at the same level for the past two decades, at about 65%. So why are so many crooks suddenly emboldened to knock over a bank? No one seems to know. Authorities from the FBI to local sheriff's offices agree that drug addiction plays a big role, but the drug plague is not new. They also point to the proliferation of less secure suburban branches, yet this too is a long-term trend that cannot fully explain the 1996-97 spike.