OFFICIALS EXPLORE PLAN TO FOIL SERIES OF BANK ROBBERIES.

Byline: Teresa Jimenez Daily News Staff Writer

Local law enforcement officials and bank employees must exchange information, keep up with technology and get better training if they plan to crack down on a recent rash of bank robberies, authorities said Thursday.

A plan for cooperation was announced after law enforcement officials, bank managers and city representatives met to talk about a recent string of robberies - including three in Malibu and two in Westlake Village.

Capt. Bill McSweeney of the Lost Hills Sheriff's Station said he is concerned that the robberies may be the beginning of a trend, with robbers targeting local banks without Plexiglas bandit barriers or expensive surveillance cameras.

``We want to do some things to discourage a trend, if there is one,'' McSweeney said. ``My instincts tell me that the efforts in the San Fernando Valley are causing a few of these bank robberies to come our way.''

Although the number of area bank robberies has spiked recently, they are coincidental and not a trend, said William J. Rehder, an FBI special agent in charge of bank robbery investigations for Los Angeles County.

However, he praised the community's effort in taking control of the situation.

``I think getting a handle on it right away is the way to go,'' Rehder said.

Bank robberies in Ventura County and Westlake Village average about 50 a year, said Gary Auer, special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation office in Ventura. However, the holdups have been more frequent lately in Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village. At the same time, robberies have dropped in Ventura and Oxnard.

McSweeney recommended that bank representatives arrange a simulated bank robbery with the sheriff's office so authorities can teach employees how to preserve the crime scene.

McSweeney also suggested that banks place surveillance cameras in parking lots, which may allow investigators to catch images of the getaway car.

The addition of security devices may take away the neighborly feeling that banks in these areas have enjoyed in the past, but times have changed, said Denis Weber, Agoura Hills mayor pro tem.

``I hate to lose the ability to reach out and touch the customers, but we need protective barriers,'' said Weber, a bank manager in Camarillo. ``It's not the way it was 10 or 20 years ago. We're not in Sleepy Hollow.''

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Photo: (1-2) Surveillance cameras, which are helpful in capturing images of suspects inside banks, could be placed in parking areas.