FBI SAYS AREA SEEING FEWER HEISTS.

Byline: Peter Hartlaub Daily News Staff Writer

The attempted robbery of a Tarzana bank Thursday came as bank robberies across Southern California are in sharp decline and on pace for a 20-year low, FBI agents say.

Bank heists across seven counties covered by the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office fell to a 20-year low in 1997, with 233 takeover robberies and 749 total robberies.

``At the rate we're going we'll probably be lower than where we were last year,'' said FBI spokeswoman Kiara Andrich.

As of Sept. 26 of this year, there were only 117 takeover robberies and 484 total robberies, Andrich said.

Still, Los Angeles has a lot more crime to fight before losing its bank-robbery-capital-of-the-nation tag. New York, at No. 2 in the nation, reported 468 robberies in 1997.

Federal officials said stiffer sentencing guidelines - which now guarantee robbers from 10 to 20 years in federal prison - have helped deter bank robberies across the nation.

``The working relationships between the banks and law enforcement officials have contributed highly,'' she said. ``I'm sure some of the security measures have been a factor, too.''

Some of those security measures include bullet-resistant ``bandit barriers,'' armed guards and exploding dye-packs disguised as money. Experts say they are being used with greater frequency.

``These types of methods tend to be used when there's increasing crime at specific branches,'' California Bankers Association spokesman John Stafford said.

Local banks also are using new devices such as Access Control Units - also known as man traps - which can isolate robbers between bulletproof plexiglass as they enter or leave the building.

Stafford said man traps are more popular on the East Coast and in Europe but have helped improve security at several at-risk banks in Southern California.

Bank robberies hit an all-time peak in the area in 1992, when there were 2,641 robberies in the seven-county area. The last time there were fewer bank robberies than last year was in 1976, when the FBI reported 714.

While the amount of bank robberies has fallen in recent years, the number of heist-related fatalities has varied.

After no deaths in 1996, six died during robberies in 1997 - including two suspects during the massive North Hollywood shootout, a suspect in a separate Van Nuys heist and a bank employee in Thousand Oaks.

The Los Angeles field office covers Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. The FBI hasn't broken down this year's bank robbery statistics in Los Angeles County or the San Fernando Valley, where residents also have benefited from fewer bank heists in recent years.

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Chart: Bank robberies decrease