Pub 1 2012 Issue 1

10 Leading advocate for the banking industry in Kansas. T HE FIRST THING TO REVIEW IS THE amount of money available to the criminal. Each teller should have a maximum limit on the amount of currency in any one teller’s station at any one time. If that amount is exceeded by deposits of currency, the cash over the maximum amount should immediately be sold to the vault teller and put away. The maximum amount in each teller’s station should be determined by the operations officer. He or she should set the maximum cash limits based upon the currency needs of the customers and the time of the month. Never set the maximum cash amount for the convenience of the tellers. That maximum amount will vary depending upon the time of the month and the pay periods of the bank’s customers. A three month survey of actual cash used will give the operations officer sufficient information to set proper cash limits. It is very important that the cur - rency in each teller’s station be divided into a top working drawer and a sec- ond locked drawer. That top working drawer currency should be maintained at $3,000 to $5,000 with the balance of the teller’s currency in the locked second drawer. That second drawer currency is immediately available to the teller who needs additional cash, but not available to the hold-up man. The reason that it is so important to have only a small amount of money immediately available to the criminal is that most bank hold-ups involve persons who have never robbed a bank before. Most bank hold-ups are com- mitted by persons who have been hold- ing up service stations, liquor stores, and convenience stores. On a good night they may get $200 or $300 from a robbery. When a bank is robbed and a very large amount of cash is taken, it is like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If these criminals see in the newspaper or on television that your bank was held-up and several thousand dollars were lost, they are motivated to rob banks instead of their regular stop-n-robs. The small amount of currency in the top working drawer is very impor- tant to slowing the increase in bank robberies. The ba it money shou ld not be placed under the bill trap. If the robber should know that the bill trap sets off the alarm or instructs the teller not to set off the alarm, the bank loses both the alarm and the bait money security protection. The best protection for any teller is to stay alert and observe the activity in the lobby as much as possible. This is important for each teller because the teller who is selected for the hold-up is always the teller who is paying no attention to what is going on around him or her. A teller who appears to be paying no attention to the lobby traffic is the best teller to rob because that SIMPLE STEPS TO DISCOURAGE BANK ROBBERIES Bank hold-ups are again on the rise. The teller position is too often an entry level job in the bank, making it difficult for the bank to maintain tellers who are trained in handling a bank hold-up. Therefore, it is important to review the bank’s security preparations for hold-ups. Security Officer’s By-Word For more information, Donald Towle can be reached at (785) 228-0000 Donald M. Towle , Kansas Bankers Surety Company