It's Working!?Or Is It?!

In his remarks at the Bank Administration Institute Security Conference in Orlando in April, Ken Arnold, V.P. of the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco noted that in Los Angeles in 1965 there were 95 bank robberies.

Because of the unacceptable numbers of bank robbery incidents, and the inefficiency of the financial institutions, the Federal Bureau of Investigation pressured Congress to enact a law directing the banks to install security measures.

By 1968, the number of bank robberies in L.A. had climbed to 225.

The law, called the Bank Protection Act, was enacted in 1968, put into effect in 1969.

In 1989 Los Angeles had over 3,000 bank robberies-45 per cent of all bank robberies in the United States that year.

"Obviously," remarked Ken, tongue-in-cheek, "The law is working!"

Copyright © 1991 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 2, No. 4, 5/91