adminThe Herald, 24 July 1983
AFTER receiving Government assurances of increased police protection, CABS will tomorrow reopen 14 suburban outlets closed last week after a spate of robberies in which a messenger was murdered.
CABS assistant general manager (personnel) Mr Tony Blatch said negotiations had resulted in offers of stepped-up police security measures.
“There will be a police presence at every branch from Monday morning,” he said.
“Every sub-branch that was closed will reopen on Monday. At this stage we have been told that the police will be there indefinitely.”
A spokesperson for Beverly Building Society, which closed 10 outlying outlets last week, said those branches might also reopen tomorrow.
“We will look at the situation on Monday morning. If there are police there, we will reopen,” the spokesperson said.
To protect its 250 tellers and other employees, CABS, the nation’s biggest building society, is installing bullet-proof glass at its suburban outlets.
Mr Blatch said the costly bullet-proofing exercise, which started last year, would not be completed until 1984.
There are also going to be more security guards with dogs, at CABS’ suburban branches.
“All these measures will give our employees that extra protection, but we can never be 100 percent sure. We will pay for the security guards, for the dogs and we pay for the bullet-proofing.
“But in the end, it is up to the powers that be, the forces of law and order, to protect us. There are no pat answers and there is only so much we can do on our own,” said Mr Blatch.
He said the entire CABS staff was stunned at the death of Coswell Makumana, the first CABS employee to die in the line of duty.
Mr Blatch said an unarmed security guard at the Avonlea branch was herded inside just like the other employees when he was shot by the gunman. The alarm system was activated but to no avail.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
Bank security should never be confined to one specific area. Instead, it has to be incredibly comprehensive, spanning from tellers to the marketing arm, to ATMs. There is never a segment that doesn’t need improved security, especially in today’s global climate.
Apart from armed robberies where lives are lost, white collar crime in the banking sector is now rife, with millions of dollars lost, thereby affecting depriving depositors of their hard-earned cash.
In this era of technological advancement, bank robberies have also been moved to cyberspace, therefore banks should ensure that networks are secure. If one ATM is hacked, fraudsters cannot infect the entire ATM network — or worse, the entire corporate network.
Online banking using computers or phones is now a common a way of accessing one’s banking information, hence the need for client awareness campaigns to ensure that there are no cases of hacking or other cybercrimes.
Online Reporter