You are an investigator working a robbery case. You are in need of determining whether this was done by a group of amateur robbers or professional robbers. How would you decide based on the evidence?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Amateur—Working alone without the help of other offenders; failing to wear a disguise or alter physical appearance; having a history of abusing drugs and/or alcohol, and perhaps are under the influence of such during the commission of the crime; using a passive method of force or fear, such as note passing instead of a weapon; employing a "wait in line" approach to victimize a single teller; committing the crime during heavy customer traffic hours, such as middays or Fridays before closing; obtaining a relatively low sum of money from the crime, on average between 4,000 and 5,000 dollars; completing the actual robbery and leaving the scene in a very short period of time, usually 5 minutes or less. Professional—Using masks or other methods to disguise physical appearance; deactivating alarms or disabling surveillance cameras; working with multiple offenders; using a take-over robbery technique; carrying and/or using weapons; entering the bank at times when relatively few customers are present; taking hostages to enforce demands; robbing multiple teller stations and attempting entry into the bank's vault; verbalizing loudly, making threats to instill fear and intimidate onlookers; obtaining large amounts of cash, usually $40,000 or more.