May 20, 2009 6:45 pm US/Central
New Web Site Unveiled To Help Catch Bank Robbers
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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A new Web site, Bandit Tracker Chicago, will allow the FBI and Chicago Police to post bank robber images online moments after the robbery occurs.
CBS
A certain kind of bank robbery is on the rise. It's called an "armed takeover." Many are committed by serial robbers.
We saw an
armed takeover unfold Tuesday afternoon. The drama played out in Calumet City, Beaubien Woods and the Bishop Ford Freeway.
Three men are charged with the crime. Surveillance images show one suspect aiming a gun at a teller at the Citibank branch in Calumet City. Another image shows a suspect jumping over the teller's counter.
CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports with a look at a high tech crime-fighting tool unveiled Wednesday to fight the rash of bank robberies.
It's called
BanditTrackerChicago.com. The Web site allows you to click on a picture of a suspect taken directly from bank surveillance video. For example, "Bulletproof Bandit." Once you do that, you see where his crime happened, when it happened and why he's been given the name "Bulletproof Bandit" - because he always wears a bulletproof vest and carries a gun in his vest pocket.
Bandit Tracker Chicago was unveiled Wednesday by the FBI, Cook County Sheriff and Chicago police. The site will allow all three agencies to get the images of suspects out to the public and the media, moments after a bank robbery has happened.
There will be a feature on the home page allowing anyone with information about a posted crime to anonymously submit a tip. They can also call the phone number on the site. The public will have 24-hour access to the Web site.
With 88 bank robberies this year and diminishing resources in law enforcement, agencies are counting on the public's help even more.
"The faster we can put these photographs on the Internet or out in the public sphere, the more people we have looking for these bank robbers, the better chance we have of solving these crimes, and the better chance we have to get dangerous people off the street," said FBI Chicago Special Agent-In-Charge Robert Grant.
A company called electronic tracking systems set up BanditTrackerChicago.com. A person with the company said similar sites have been launched in other cities like Atlanta and Little Rock. And after that happened, there was an increase in arrests.
To visit Bandit Tracker Chicago,
click here.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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