The number of bank robberies in Spokane County has plummeted by 73 percent so far this year following extensive efforts by banks and law-enforcement agencies to curb and respond to such heists.


As of late last week, robbers had hit just eight banks countywide this yeara precipitous drop from the 30 such crimes last year, says Ken Fadeley, chairman of the Spokane Bank Security Officers Group. Spokane Police Department crime analyst Gary Kuntz says there were 39 bank robberies countywide in 2001, 27 in 2000, and 33 in both 1999 and 1998, which works out to a five-year average of 32 heists a year.


The financial institutions have taken a more aggressive attitude toward bank robbers, Fadeley says. He says banks are training staff members to look each person who enters a bank branch in the eye and to greet them verbally as they come in. Also, staff members are trained to be aware if someone is counting security cameras or employees or is looking for alternative exits from a branch.


Meanwhile, the FBI, the Spokane Police Department, and the Spokane County Sheriffs Office have collaborated closely to solve cases and make arrests, and the Washington Legislatures stiffening of jail sentences for bank robbery has helped to deter the arrests, Fadeley claims.


Larry Steinmetz, supervisor of the major crimes unit in the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorneys Office, says that in July 2002, a bank heist became a first-degree robbery punishable by a prison sentence of 31 to 41 months for a first offender. Previously, the crime had been a second-degree robbery punishable by a sentence of three to nine months for a first offender, although if a weapon was displayed during a bank robbery, the offense could have been prosecuted as a first-degree robbery.


Steinmetz says he believes that the stiffer penalty has acted as a deterrent to bank robberies already, just from the fact that we havent had that many bank robberies this year.


Fadeley credits John Weber, vice president and security officer at Washington Trust Bank, for spurring the Bank Security Officers Group to become more active in recent years. Fadeley says at least 40 bank-security and law-enforcement officers attend the groups meetings each month.


Weber says that all financial institutions herecommercial banks, credit unions, savings banks, etc. share information to help prevent robberies.


Statewide, the number of robberies has drifted downward to about 210 through Oct. 31 this year from 361 in all of 1998, Weber says. Last year, there were 293 bank robberies statewide.


In the region east of the Cascades, I believe there are 11 all of this year, says Weber, who is chairman of the Washington Bankers Association security committee and a member of the Idaho Bankers Association security committee.


No one knows for sure why bank robberies here are down, Weber says, but adds, I would like to see us credit the tellers and the people in the banks for what they do, such as spotting people that are loitering.


Randall Fewel, president and CEO of Spokane-based Inland Northwest Bank, says financial institutions here are relieved to see the number of robberies fall because the crimes almost always result in a total loss for a bank.


There is a misconception that FDIC insurance covers robberies. It doesnt. It insures the depositor if a bank fails, Fewel says.


Many banks, like INB, carry robbery insurance, but the deductible is so high that it almost always exceeds the amount a robber takes, Fewel says. Banks also seldom get their money back when a robber is caught. Robbers often will use their loot to buy an expensive car or other items for which the full value cant be realized in a resale after theyre caught, so the bank is left holding the bag, he says.


Very rarely have we ever gotten a recovery. In fact, I dont remember a time that we have, Fewel says.


The premiums for robbery insurance are high, and banks face a quandary of how much to spend on security equipment, such as video cameras and dye packs, to deter robberies, Fewel says.


Ultimately, some of the steepest costs after a robbery come in personnel expenses, Fewel says. Sometimes employees need counseling or medications after a heist, and one INB teller no longer could work in the industry after enduring a bank robbery, he says.


The Bank Security Officers Group has helped banks here combat robberies by providing information and training exercises, sometimes through such surprise tactics as leaving an unclaimed briefcase sitting in a bank to see if anyone notices the out-of-place item, Fewel says.


Fadeley says that in addition to teaching employees to be observant, banks are training them to remain calm if a robbery occurs, so they can obey the robbers orders and lessen the chances that someone will get hurt. Employees also are trained to secure a branch after a robbery and make sure that nothing, such as an explosive device, has been left behind. If they have greeted a robber as he or she has entered an institution, bank staff members already will have pictured the robbers face.


Thats what we teach is: calm, obey, picture, and secure, he says.


Also, a fax and e-mail tree has been set up to transmit information from one institution to another when a robbery occurs or when a suspicious person is observed by bank employees at an institution, Fadeley says. Instances have occurred in which a security camera has caught a person casing a branch who later committed a robbery. In at least one case, a camera recorded a robbers car at one institution, which made it easier to apprehend him after he robbed a different bank, Fadeley says.


If theres something suspicious going on, everybody knows about it, he says.