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Thanks in part to new technology involving GPS tracking, bank robberies throughout California declined through all four quarters of 2010, the Federal Bureau of Investigations Violent Crimes Unit said recently.

The FBI recently announced the decline in robberies and said they were surprised at the change in numbers on account of the lagging economy. Federal agent Brad Bryant, head of the Violent Crimes Unit explained that often during low points in the economy people turn to acts of crime including robbing banks, but that hasn’t been the case during this recession. GPS tracking devices have been embedded in the cash handed over to robbers. He added that California has been hit particularly hard by the recession with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country as well as a massive slump in the housing market that tops the nation.

Bryant went on to explain that bank robberies in California have dropped 1,153 in 2003 to 710 in 2009. He said that tracking the robbers after they leave the bank and keeping track of the exact whereabouts of the criminals and the stolen cash makes it easier to squash these crimes.

The technology marks a change that is expected to have a wide sweeping effect with bank robberies across the country, although precise figure as to how many of these types of crimes have been stopped as a result of the GPS tracking devices are not available yet.

Article Written by Greg Minton