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Florida ranks 9th in bank robberies, and bankers say you can help cut the numbers down.  They’re asking customers to follow a new, voluntary “no hats, no hoods, no sunglasses” policy.  If customers refuse to take off the items, they won’t be denied service, but shown to an area with more security measures.  The program is not new.  Missouri started a similar one in 2002 and robberies fell by a third in the first year.  Law enforcement says robbers won’t be able to hide now.

“I can’t tell you over the course of my 30 years of law enforcement experience, how many bank surveillance photographs I’ve looked and they could have been my own son in that photograph and I wouldn’t have recognized them because of the disguises that they do use,” said the FBI’s Matt Pellegrino.

Nearly 40 percent of Florida’s bank robberies in 2007 involved the suspect wearing some type of disguise or mask.  25 banking institutions have already started the “no hats, no hoods, no sunglasses” policy.