Bank holdups in Southern California dipped last year to the lowest level in 20 years, but the region still kept its title as bank robbery capital of the nation.
FBI figures released Monday show there were 749 bank robberies in the seven-county area, a third fewer than in 1996, when 1,126 cases were reported.
In Los Angeles County alone, the drop was a more dramatic 47%, while San Bernardino County bucked the trend with an increase of 66% and Riverside County was up 15%.
Overall, bank robberies in Southern California have been edging downward since 1992. A record-breaking 2,641 bank robberies took place that year in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. The 1997 figures represent a 72% decline from that peak.
Timothy P. McNally, special agent in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, attributed the decline to heightened security measures by banks, arrests of serial bank bandits, longer prison sentences for criminals and better cooperation among law enforcement agencies.
"FBI and local law enforcement officials are still not ready to claim victory," McNally cautioned. "There is a lot of work ahead to bring this problem under control."
Southern California continued to chalk up the most bank robberies in the country, easily eclipsing the New York City area, which had 286 heists last year.
The contrast is largely explained by the nature of banking in Southern California. Despite downsizing, mergers and consolidations, no region has a branch banking system as extensive as Southern California's, creating more targets of opportunity for bandits.
So notorious is Southern California that the Los Angeles FBI field office used to include the sardonic motto "Bank Robbery Capital of the World" on its fax cover sheets.
The FBI's McNally noted a troubling year-to-year increase in takeover robberies at Southern California financial institutions.
One-third, or 233, of all bank robberies in 1997 involved violent takeovers. That constituted a 5% increase over the previous year. Six employees or customers were shot during the commission of those crimes, compared to just one in 1996, the FBI said.
In one takeover in April, bank teller Monica Leech, a 39-year-old mother of two, was handcuffed and executed by bank bandits in Thousand Oaks. Although investigators say they have made progress in the case, no arrests have been made.
