SPRINGFIELD – Bank robberies have gotten a lot of play in the Pioneer Valley in recent months, given the publicity of the man-with-a-nice-hat robberies toward the end of the year, but new FBI statistics show the number of bank robberies both nationally and in Massachusetts declined in 2010 compared to the year before.



Numbers provided by the FBI for Jan. 1 - Dec. 31, 2010 show a total of 5,628 robberies at banks nationwide, down a little more than 6 percent from the 5,943 bank robberies in the same period of 2009.

A further comparison of the 2009 and 2010 FBI reports shows the amount of money taken in the robberies was also down, declining 7 percent from $45.9 million in ‘09 to $42.5 million last year.

The average haul, $7,732 in 2009 and $7,663 in 2010, showed a slight dip of about $70.

In each year, law enforcement recovered all or some of the loot in 22 percent of all robberies. In 2010, recovered loot totaled $8.19 million compared to $8.01 million the year before.



In the Northeast, bank robberies declined by 3.8 percent, or 1,024 in '09 to 985 last year. The region with the most robberies was the South with 1,790 and then the West with 1,691, but the South and West saw reductions of 10 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

The Northeast remained the least likely region in the United States to see bank robberies, but for the past two years, nearly seven of every 10 robberies in the region have occurred in the three Mid-Atlantic states of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

In New England, Massachusetts accounted for 58 percent of the 294 bank robberies, roughly the same percentage as the year before.

Massachusetts tallied 170 robberies in 2010, down from 180 the year before.

Connecticut reported 56 robberies, down from 80 in 2009.

In an interesting note, while New England as a whole and Massachusetts and Connecticut each saw declines in bank robberies, the amounts for New Hampshire and Rhode Island more than doubled. New Hampshire and Rhode Island each had 11 bank robberies in 2009. Last year, New Hampshire reported 26 robberies, while Rhode Island had 27.





Also in the 2010 data, the 5,546 robberies were committed by a total of 6,753 suspects, which works out to 1.2 suspects per heist. In real-life terms, that means most bank robberies are carried out by a single robber.

Also bank robbers are overwhelmingly male. Overwhelmingly as in 94 percent. When categorized by race, the odds of a bank robber being white or black are the same: 40 percent.

Of those 6,753 suspects, law enforcement has identified 3,325 of them, or about 49 percent.

Of the known suspects, a little more than a third, were known to be drug users and 17 percent were ex-convicts who had prior convictions for - what else? - bank robbery.

Also according to the report, Fridays, at 20 percent, are the most common day for banks to be hit, which is probably a leftover from the days before direct deposit. The second most popular day is Tuesday.

The most common time for a bank to be hit is between 9 - 11 a.m., or 28 percent.

Forty-seven percent of robberies are at banks in cities, followed by 33 percent for banks at small towns. Suburban banks account for 18 percent.

In 20 percent of robberies, robbers used a gun, but in 44 percent, robbers indicated they had guns, but no weapons were ever seen.

In 61 percent, the robbers used a note, while in 55 percent the robbers used verbal commands. There is bound to be some overlap in some cases with robbers using both notes and verbal commands.