Most everyone walked away from a meeting held between Independence Township officials, the Oakland County Sheriff’s department and local bank personnel satisfied.
On April 25, the groups met for two hours at the Independence Township Library to discuss issues relevant to bank security. The meeting included a presentation by FBI agents to provide further insight on how to prevent and respond to bank robberies.
‘It went excellent with a lot of good dialogue from bank personnel. The feedback from them was that it was long overdue and a good resource. Some expressed a desire to make it a yearly thing,? said Sergeant Matt Baldes, of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department, who organized the event.
‘In this business, (bankers) are competitors, but on a community level they are peers and it is in their best interest to take care of each other,? he added.
Assistant Vice President of Risk Management Debby Chisholm with Clarkston State Bank echoed Baldes.
‘I walked away confident (the police department) is willing to help and no calls will go unanswered,? said Chisholm. ‘They gave us reassurance that on anything out of the ordinary, ‘You give us a call and we’ll follow up on it.??
Oxford Bank’s Assistant Branch Manager Sondra Hale also left the meeting satisfied with area bank and law enforcement procedures when dealing with robberies.
‘The local law enforcement here is awesome. Our substation is great. They have some state of the art stuff,? said Hale.
‘I’m in (banking) for the customer service, but the risk is there and you can’t stop that. If they’re going to come in, they’ll come in. Each and every bank stands shoulder to shoulder in regards to (bank robberies)? We don’t want to stick our heads in the sand, we want to be proactive.?
The meeting came about after Independence Township supervisor Dave Wagner suggested it to Lieutenant Dale LaBair a few months ago.
‘I was surprised by the response of the banking community because it’s a tight knit community,? said Wagner. ‘It was fantastic. I think we need to do more of this type of thing with other businesses and even with citizens at town hall meetings.?
During the meeting, Baldes and other personnel from the Independence substation explained their procedures, quality of video surveillance and how the banks and law enforcement could work well together. Special agents from the FBI also gave helpful advice on detection, prevention and pre and post robbery procedures.
One of the more important results of the meeting was a contact list being assembled for banks. The list is designed so banks can establish communication on a local level when security is threatened.
‘The contact sheet gives you a specific person to call and tell about a robbery or unusual circumstances,? said Chisholm.
Baldes highlighted the contact list as a positive step in the right direction to help law enforcement officials and banks respond.
‘Some of them said they didn’t even know a bank was robbed until they read it in the paper,? said Baldes.
‘If I can get a real good picture of a suspect, I can quickly email it to other banks. It’s a benefit to all parties to have the contact list.?
For Chisholm, having tellers prepared to look for and respond to possible robberies is key to handling robberies.
‘If you approach someone instead of them approaching you, it may scare them off,? said Chisholm.
Banking representatives took away examples of security measures employed at other institutions that could be helpful to prevent robberies.
Chisholm said she learned larger banks often coordinate with local police departments to conduct mock robberies to better prepare tellers to handle the situations.