Where the Money Is

Aug 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Randy Southerland

People rob banks because “that's where the money is.” Not much has changed in the decades since the infamous Willie Sutton uttered his oft-quoted rationale for robbery. Yet, protecting financial institutions has evolved into a high-tech and, now, wireless business.

Although few robberies net much money these days, they still pose a threat of injury to both bank employees and customers. That's one of the reasons Jay Baker, security systems supervisor for Dallas-based Guaranty Bank, decided to move the financial institution to a wireless system.

With approximately $17 billion in assets, Guaranty Bank is one of the largest financial institutions owned by a Texas-based company, and has 178 branches throughout Texas and California.

Baker's first task was to create a secure network that integrated the functions of its alarm systems, access control and video surveillance into a single environment controlled from a central station in Austin, Texas. By consolidating these functions, the security team could provide fast event management and emergency response to unfolding events.

The bank installed Pacom System's 1058 alarm panels at each of its banking locations. In addition, Pacom provided its Graphical Management System (GMS) application to manage security at the locations. This Windows-based alarm management and access control application allows for programmable operating parameters such as alarm zone identification, network and dial back-up parameters and user and card access information.

“The system is so easy to use that we can pull it up very quickly,” Baker says. “A lot of times if somebody hits the hold-up button fast enough, we can actually see the banking center while [the event] is going on.”

From the Austin headquarters, officials are able to monitor alarms and respond by automatically locking doors to protect bank workers and customers.

“I never liked the idea that the first thing our tellers are told to do after a robbery is to go lock the door,” confessed Baker. “I know the door needed to be locked, but many times that means somebody is walking toward the bank robber, who may be out in the parking lot.”

Rather than put the employee in possible danger, employees can lock bank entrances at the push of a button using wireless magnetic locks supplied by Sparks, Nev.-based Securitron Magnalock Corp.

“Not only can the tellers lock the door down, but our security operations center can remotely go in and lock that branch down if they need to stop somebody from being able to come in,” Baker explains.

The primary reason Guaranty Bank created its own operations center in 1995 was to escape the expense of third-party monitoring. The number of false-alarm calls made, and the resulting charges, proved to be a rising and onerous expense.

By creating an in-house central station, it has been able to dramatically reduce the number false alarms. Bank employees with greater knowledge of the branches could monitor alarms and determine if an event was actually taking place or whether the signal was a false alarm. If the alert came in from a hold-up button, the security official typically called the branch and requested a pass phrase to determine if an actual robbery was in progress. In contrast, the outsourced security company automatically dispatched police when an alarm was reported.

“Within the first couple of years, the head-end basically paid for itself because of the number of false alarms that we had done away with,” Baker says.

From the central station, Guaranty officials are able to monitor branches using the Image Retention Information System (IRIS) Digital Video Surveillance System. Designed especially for the banking industry, it has the ability to tie transactions to both the teller line and to ATMs. When a fraud/loss manager or security investigator is searching for images of a particular individual or a certain event, he or she is able to see the time and date when the video was recorded.

IRIS provides secure, easy-to-access, computer-indexed video evidence of all illegal activity. The IRIS digital video recorder replaces traditional tape-based video recorders.

Designed to be a user-friendly Windows application, it connects directly to bank software to index video images for each transaction. With no videotapes or recorders, the digital video recording system employs digital imaging that surpasses analog video recorders. Easy-to-retrieve images are indexed by date and time, transaction number, teller number or camera number. This allows for instantaneous retrieval of images from multiple remote locations. All images are stored for 90 days or more.

Baker contends that the IRIS system is a highly adjustable application. For example, when a camera is covering an ATM, operators do not want to capture images of traffic passing by on the street. Instead, they want activation only when the machine is in use.

“You can say, I only want to see images when 40 percent of the pixels change or, more realistically, when 25 percent of the pixels change, which would mean that some person is standing in front of it,” Baker says.

In addition, the IRIS system provides bank employees with the ability to burn images to CDs for quick distribution to local police in the event of a robbery. Usually after a robbery, the bank will place the selected images on a shared database that all authorized staff can access within minutes of the event. Even the fraud/loss department at the bank's headquarters in Texas can see images from a bank in Southern California.

Tower cameras provided by Pasadena, Calif.-based Hamilton Pacific cover nearly all teller lines in the banks. Everyone who approaches the counter faces a two-foot tall camera, which records a clear and readily identifiable image.

At first, Baker was concerned that the newly installed cameras might be disconcerting to customers. Yet, bank employees report that customers never ask about them and often do not seem to know they are there.

Guaranty has also installed ExitView cameras from Honeywell Video Systems that combine a CCD camera with a height strip. These units capture the face of the culprit at eye level in full color as they leave the facility.

The primary reason for putting video in a banking center is to capture images of a robbery that can be used to identify and convict perpetrators. The system has already proved its worth when it comes to giving authorities evidence of criminal activity.

When a woman wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap robbed a California bank, officials were able to quickly secure images of the event. These pictures were immediately e-mailed to the local police department and an arrest was made soon after. One of the odd aspects of this particular case was that a few minutes before the woman entered the bank; the cameras also captured a man in the teller line wearing the same cap and glasses. He turned and walked out. His female counterpart came back to finish the job after he lost his nerve. That move led to the arrest of both individuals.

In addition, the cameras have also given managers the ability to monitor non-criminal activities as well. When outside workers such as cleaning crews enter the building during hours when the facility may be closed, managers are able to see how long they were present and what actually took place.

With cameras placed outside the buildings to monitor ATMs and drive-up windows, local police have, on occasion, been able to use video images to solve crimes that did not involve the bank. One California bank was approached by police searching for images of an assault that reportedly occurred in the parking lot after hours.

In one case at a Southern California bank, police approached officials after a burglar forced his way into a restaurant across the street. A Guaranty Bank camera covering the night drop captured the crime taking place.

“They took the digital image and I think they got enough information on the vehicle that the person was driving [to identify a suspect],” Baker says. “I am not sure that they made an arrest or anything but I know that they definitely used the video that we gave them.”

Images from cameras are stored at individual banking centers on a digital video system configured for use with the IRIS software. The images, which are typically archived for 90 days, can be accessed from the Austin center or remotely by using a password-protected screen.

“The [bank] managers can review video from their desk,” Baker says. “They don't have to actually go to the unit in order to do that. They can just go to the network on their desktop and will be able to pull up the video from their banking centers.”

With little more than dozen relatively low risk banking centers in smaller towns still to be outfitted with the new wireless application, Baker is confident Guaranty has met it needs.

ABOUT THE COMPANIES

For information, circle the Reader Service number (listed below) or visit securitysolutions.com

Hamilton Pacific	29
Honeywell V ideo Systems	30
Pacom Systems	31
Securitron Magnalock Corp.	32

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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

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