Operation Cooperation Nets Bank Robbery Suspect

Operation Cooperation is an initiative in which the Vancouver Police Department shares information with private security and participates in sting operations. The latest of such an operation in which Genesis Security participated in was the use of our Undercover Loss Prevention Team, which we administer through the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the L.P. Team and their role within the DVBIA, they are trained to protect members and their property from theft and vandalism. Specific areas of focus are retail stores, office towers, hotels, parkades and public events. It is designed to work in partnership with the Downtown Ambassadors® Program, the Vancouver Police Department, contract and in-house security, transit security and the provincial automobile insurance agency (ICBC).

True to their definition, their latest objective within the scope of Operation Cooperation was to assist in monitoring certain financial institutions throughout the Downtown core, observing and reporting on any of the known suspects who have been a major problem as of late in reference to committing robberies on a repeated basis.

Two of our Loss Prevention Officers were conducting surveillance as requested in the last week of January, resulting in them spotting one of the suspects who had earlier been captured on CCTV committing several robberies throughout the area. Upon following the individual they were able to witness him enter into a financial institution and participate in a robbery right in front of their very eyes.

As the suspect exited the bank, they followed him up the street while waiting for police assistance to arrive. Unfortunately, the suspect began to walk very fast and break into a run at times, so at this point our team members made the decision to apprehend him right away; an act they were able to manage without incident I might add.

It should be noted that usually we would never apprehend a bank robber without police assistance, however because of Operation Cooperation we were aware that this particular subject worked in an unarmed capacity.

The V.P.D. arrived a very short time later and took the subject into custody and our team was on their way, once again patrolling the downtown streets doing what they do best.

Congratulations team, this is another excellent example of why this program is so good on so many different levels.