Ambush attackers depend on consistency. They time sequences. They count on the predictability of habits. They approach while avoiding recognition until they strike. Unknowingly, many retail businesses, especially banks, enable a criminal’s ability to plan their attack by standardizing the building designs, secured access points, and operating procedures. Criminals have become very efficient in exploiting these practices.
“Although such uniformity may help customers feel comfortable banking in any branch, it also provides great predictability for robbers.”
“Bank employees are so compliant that the robbery itself is a quick and efficient transaction; more than two-thirds of bank robberies are completed in three minutes or less. Robbers often wait in the teller’s line with legitimate customers and pass a demand note to the teller. In many robberies, the event is handled so discreetly that other customers and even other employees are not even aware that a crime has occurred until after the robber has left the premises.”
There a number of ways to create uncertainty slanted toward the nefarious types, while still extending hospitality toward the visitors and customers were eager to serve. Law enforcement and security experts agree that a simple yet effective way to avoid or deter ambush attacks is to maintain “situational awareness” by greeting people entering your place of business while making eye contact with them. This most basic practice denies would-be robbers or attacker’s anonymity. Remember they don’t want to be noticed. Criminals are experts at defining easy opportunities. They will pass on environments where they’ve been recognized or have to meet criteria to gain entry.
Criminals find it too risky to attempt passage through entrances that require credentials or that can detect and prevent weapons from coming into the building. These types of entrances can isolate a would-be attacker and also prevent swarming types of takeover attacks. Entrances and buildings safeguarded by automated technologies are hostile environments for criminals.
Attackers can overwhelm a known security measure like a guard, but not an unseen yet omnipresent security countermeasure. They’re left to guessing what may or may not be detected or what happens upon detection. Either aspect creates uncertainty and encourages would-be attackers who are more concerned with getting away then getting in. In their way of thinking, it would be better to find a less formidable target.
For us pedestrians, creating uncertainty for criminals with elegant security measures are pretty much non-existent or nonchalant, because they don’t affect us; to a criminal, they’re huge warning signs…Creating uncertainty for would-be perpetrators wins the battle before it starts, while we go about our daily business.
To learn how Isotec Security Inc. can help protect you: call us today at (720) 545-2816 or contact us at info@isotecinc.com.