- President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested school security should be akin to that of banks.
- Trump has proposed arming teachers and other professionals at schools as a way to prevent mass shootings.
- That’s not how bank security works.
At the White House on Thursday, President Trump said “I want my schools protected just like I want my banks protected.”
He said this as part of his proposal to arm large numbers of teachers – as many as 40% of them, he thinks might be qualified to be armed.
Well, how are banks protected? Not by arming the bank tellers.
While Trump has conjured an image of armed teachers heroically stopping mass shooters with their own guns, that’s not how banks work at all. When I worked at Wells Fargo, I had to go through the online bank branch security training like all other employees. The instruction, in the event of a robbery, is to hand over the cash in your cash drawer to the robber, and to hit the silent alarm if it’s safe to do so.
The alarm summons the police - professionals with guns. And that's all for good reason. A bank teller's job is to conduct bank transactions, not to engage in armed defense of the bank. They don't have the right skills for armed defense of the bank.
Some major bank branches have armed security, but most don't. If there is armed security, it's conducted by people whose specific job is to provide security.
One reason you don't need armed personnel in banks is there are passive security measures. Bank tellers may be behind protective glass; most of the money is inaccessible in time-locked safes, etc. Few of these measures are transferable to schools; we can't put bulletproof glass in between students or lock them in time-controlled safes.
Trump seems to recognize this, because when he talks about the need to "harden" schools, he doesn't talk about defensive measures like bulletproof glass; he talks about offensive measures, that is, large numbers of staff with guns who can shoot back.
But the main reason you don't need armed personnel in banks is policing and law enforcement provide the most effective deterrent to bank robbery.
So, banks may have some security lessons for schools. But they're not the lessons Trump imagines.
