Thursday, April 19, 2007

 

Be Polite, It Scares the Bank Robbers

At some point I should make a list of the little rules I have come up with. One of which says the world is two thirds common sense and one third counter intuitive. This story fits the counterintuitive. Well, at least until you think about it. Honestly, who hasn't been put off by an overly friendly salesperson.

Excessive friendliness is the key to the "Safecatch" system created by FBI Special Agent Larry Carr. The premise is that an overdose of courtesy will unnerve would-be robbers and get them to rethink the crime.

"If you're a legitimate customer, you think, ‘This is the friendliest person I've met in my life.' If you're a bad guy, it scares the lights out of you," said Drew Ness, a vice president of Bellevue-based First Mutual Bank, who advocates the approach.

Carr, who has taught the method to employees at 16 Washington banks over the past few years, credits the system in part for the drop in Seattle bank robberies from 80 in the first three months of 2006 to 44 during the same period this year. On Tuesday, he ran a training session for employees at a First Mutual branch in Seattle.


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