The Met’s most high-profile unit is having its numbers slashed after a decline in armed robberies.
The Flying Squad, famously glamourised in ‘70s TV show The Sweeney, deals with armed robbery and bank heists, but a fall in this type of crime has caused drastic cuts; last year saw the dismissal of almost 50 officers and the loss of two out of four Flying Squad bases.
Where once the number of major robberies reached almost a thousand per annum – in 1992 it peaked at 847 a year, with 291 in London alone – bank heists are no longer the crime du jour. In 2012 the total fell to just 102 raids, with only 29 of those occurring in the capital.
Whilst the numbers might look bleak for the Flying Squad, the news is welcome in the security industry. The main factor cited in the decline is the rise of CCTV. With the UK now boasting almost two million security cameras, the bank robber’s job has become that much harder. Unlike the grainy silhouettes of early cameras, the superb image quality and affordability of today’s systems mean more cameras, more clarity – and more chance of getting caught.
Jackie Malton, the inspiration for Prime Suspect‘s Jane Tennyson and herself a former Flying Squad officer, cites better security as the cause of the decline, with the risk factor for armed robberies now just too high. “Because of all the increased security they have a much higher chance of being caught,” Malton says. These days a heavy sentence – 16 or 17 years behind bars – is a real reality.
As well as CCTV, the fall in bank raids is a result of advancements in every area of bank branch security. Along with the fundamentals – glass screens protecting staff, dyed banknotes, time delay safes, and simply having less cash held in the branch – banks are investing in ever-more innovative security methods; specialist fogs, exploding strong boxes that glue notes together, and even rigging vaults with devices that cover criminals in smoke laced with artificial DNA, coating the skin and clothing. Against these improvements, balaclavas and sawn-off shot guns no longer cut the mustard.
The Flying Squad’s last great victory over the armed heist came in November 2000. After triumphing against the Krays and cracking the Great Train Robbery, the Squad foiled the planned theft of the Millennium Star. The 203 carat diamond, insured for £100 million and one of the largest and purest gems in the world, was part of a display at the Millennium Dome (now the 02 Arena).
After receiving a tip-off, more than 100 Flying Squad officers were involved in Operation Magician, which saw the £350 million De Beers diamond display replaced with replicas. When the gang used a JCB digger to smash through perimeter protection, undercover officers pounced as the robbers attacked the display case with sledgehammers and a nail gun. A getaway speedboat shored up on the Thames was also intercepted. The Flying Squad had foiled one of the biggest attempted robberies in history.
The tip-off that foiled the Millennium Star theft illustrates the changing face of criminal ethics, something which has had its own impact on the bank heist. Honour among thieves evolved into the age of the supergrass, with criminals bargaining their way out of long sentences by giving evidence against their colleagues. The need to involve four, five, six people in a smash and grab increased the chances that someone would dish the dirt. Those who did end up in prison began networking and, as the 20th century passed into the 21st, a new breed of criminals started conducting crimes online.
Cyber crime has become the new bread and butter of the criminal underworld. Bank card data theft has spiralled, with £450 million stolen from British cards in 2013 – a 16% rise since 2012. Online banking fraud shot up to £40.9 million in the same year.
But the traditional bank raid isn’t quite dead; in April last year, the theft of £1.3 million from a Swiss Cottage branch of Barclays breached both physical and system security. When police investigated, they discovered a Keyboard Video Mouse switch attached to one of the branch computers, which had allowed the criminals to remotely transfer money to their own bank accounts. Police realised that a man claiming to be an IT engineer had charmed his way in the day before, physically placing the KVM device inside the branch. Ring-leader Tony Colston-Hayter was sentenced to five and half years in January 2014.
Thanks to CCTV and security innovation the days of Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, and Ronnie Biggs are over. Films like Point Break and Dog Day Afternoon will have to look elsewhere for inspiration. With the Flying Squad’s glories now firmly in the past, the job of protecting Britain from the armed robber has been passed from the flare-wearing likes of John Thaw and Dennis Waterman to purveyors of security; instead of guns and ammo, these days the war is won with closed-circuit television.
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