The bad guys are not breaking the bank like they used to in North Carolina. The FBI's North Carolina Field Office has solved 68 percent of its bank robbery cases this year. That's tops among allFBIfield offices.
"I think that's a credit to the wonderful relationship that exists between the state, federal and local law enforcement in the state," said FBI Special Agent Bill Perry.
But the total number of bank robberies in our state is also on the way up. The FBI's North Carolina Field Office has handled 268 cases this year, fourth among all the FBI field offices.
Durham's police chief says that is why we need to put more of our efforts into stopping and preventing bank robberies.
Chief Teresa Chambers notes that for close to a decade, there has been technology available that can track bank robbers with a very high success rate.
"There's some things on the market that help us not only prevent the robberies before they occur, but then also capture the robbers soon after that robbery. We've had some repeat offenders in theCity of Durham, and it would be very important for us to catch that robber soon after the first robbery, so he doesn't have time to do additional ones," said Chambers.
Local law enforcement says banks around the area have been slow to adopt the new technology and are sticking with older, cheaper surveillance methods. The banks disagree.
"I think we've been very pro-active, and we are still looking at additional devices, and we have to test those devices. We have to see if they're cost effective," saidCCBSecurity Manager Paula Veasey.
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