A bank I pass on my way to work has a cop car parked in its lot several times a week. This is about 7:15, 7:30, so the bank isn’t open yet. No one is in the car. The bank is adjacent to a shopping center, but not totally conveniently so – if the cop were doing something elsewhere in the shopping center (getting coffee, etc.) he or she would have much better places to park.
Any theories about what’s going on here?
It could be just a deterrant (however a closed bank would be pretty secure already I would think).
A closed down motel near my work had an empty cop car sitting in front of it 24 hours a day till they tore the place down. I assumed it was there to deter people from messing around in the place.
Yeah, but why would the city let one of their cop cars be used in such a way?
Perhaps it is out of service and not scheduled for immediate repair.
The parking of a marked police vehicle in a conspicuous place is used in a number of places that have more vehicles than patrolmen to operate them, as it is one of the most effective, least intrusive means of improving traffic control.
Not applicable to this case, where the car is vacant, but for people seeing occupied police cars sitting in parking lots, business driveways, etc.: It’s a common practice, and in some cases department policy, for a patrol covering a given area to stand at a spot adjacent to where experience has shown it is likely to be needed. I.e., if there is often an accident during rush hour within a mile or so of where the West Side Freeway crosses Wingnut Highway, a cop may find it useful to sit in a parking lot off Wingnut Highway near the on ramps for West Side Freeway, ready to respond to any indications of an accident – and slowing traffic on Wingnut to what’s proper for the extant conditions by the simple fact of his presence.
Is the lot next to a street where the cops may be trying to get people to slow down (and using the car to scare people into doing so)?
Cops often work ‘details’ for extra money, doing things like funeral processions and security at places such as banks. Many guys I’ve known use this money to bridge the gap between what they make as cops and what they need to spend to support their families.
There’s a chance that the car you’re seeing belong to an officer who’s actually in the bank.
Is there an exterior ATM at the branch?
Sometimes banks have their staff load the local ATM rather than having an armored car do it.
Could he have been supervising the loading?
Trying to get traffic to slow down makes sense – it’s an awkward intersection. And more cars than cops also makes sense.
“No” on the supervising ATM loading or otherwise being in the bank – the ATM is in a glass foyer, visible from the street, and there’s no one visible there or elsewhere in the bank (also mostly glass).
Re the early time of the day: Isn’t there a frequent mode of store/bank robbery where the employee who arrives first to open up (the manager, more often than not) gets held up and made to unlock the cash box? (I am currently sitting as a lay judge on just such a case). It might be a consideration to deter just such a case, or reassure someone who has been robbed this way.
This also makes sense – they open at 8 – but there’s no cop visible, just the car.
A rogue cop casing the joint?
You’re correct. Humorously enough, I’ve seen one of the magazines associated with the banking industry refer to this as a ‘morning glory’ robbery.
There are even protocols for the first man in to use in order to indicate to the later-arriving staff that things are ‘cool’.
“Oh, the blinds are not pulled to the side on the left window. I’m not allowed to go in yet.”
Obviously if things aren’t ‘cool’ you don’t want 3 more staff walking in during the middle of an incident.
Another protocol calls for two bankers to go in, with the second banker waiting until the first banker ‘clears’ the building. If the first banker doesn’t indicate that things are clear, banker #2 is expected to make a call on his cell phone…
Maybe it’s an undercover FDIC agent masquerading as a cop?
It’s been known to happen. In 1988 Albuquerque police officer Matt Griffen commited several bank robberies while wearing a “ninja” disguise.
The city I live in used to park a police car with a dummy in it on streets that had speeding problems, until someone noticed it was a dummy and plastered the car with donuts.
Wow. I actually had to track down some details. The bank robberies were not the only bad things he did!
http://kaitarquette.arquettes.com/corruption%20overview.htm
Empty cars were used at banks in the late 60’s and 70’s during my tenure as a gas station jockey in upstate NY. I made the cash bag deposit around 10pm. After a string of robberies in the area, the cars appeared. Sometimes occupied, sometimes not. I felt a lot more secure and never had a problem.
Perhaps the answer is rather more simple than anybody has thought of yet. It may be that the cop is beginning - or ending - his shift each morning and simply going through his daily paperwork (or whatever it may be cops do when you see them sitting in parking lots). It may just be a habitual action he/she is performing. Get a coffee, park in parking lot, do paperwork (or whatever), and then leave.
Except there’s no cop in the car.