Mirroring national and local trends, bank robberies have jumped drastically in Howard County from two in 2000 to 17 so far this year, county police say.

Nearly 6,800 bank robberies occurred in the United States in 1999 and about 8,300 last year, according to the FBI. In the Baltimore region, the number of bank robberies has risen over the past three years, FBI statistics show.

Anne Arundel County had 17 bank robberies in 2000, 36 last year and 32 through October this year. Baltimore County banks were hit with 33 robberies in 2000, 96 last year and 83 by Oct. 31. In 2000, 41 Baltimore City banks were robbed; 64 were robbed last year and 59 were hit through October this year.

In Howard County, 10 bank robberies occurred last year.

Local law enforcement officials say they are not sure why robberies have risen during the past three years, but other experts point to the weak economy, an increase in the number of bank branches and the fact that bank workers are instructed not to interfere.

"Banks teach their employees to be compliant. The banks see it as their job to assist law enforcement rather than to be law enforcement," said John Hall, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association, a national trade group based in Washington.

A typical bank robbery is a quick, bloodless exercise, experts say. According to the FBI, about 5 percent of bank robberies resulted in violence in 2000 - the most recent year for which detailed data are available.

A nonviolent bank robbery last week in Columbia is typical of this type of crime: A man in his 30s wearing a white-and-red baseball cap, dark jacket and jeans robbed the Farmers & Mechanics National Bank in Dorsey's Search, police said. He did not display a weapon, but quietly demanded and received an undisclosed amount of money and fled on foot, they said.

No arrest had been made as of yesterday afternoon, said Cpl. Lisa Myers, a Howard County police spokeswoman.

While many criminals regard banks as "soft" targets, authorities arrest nearly 60 percent of bank robbers, as opposed to about 25 percent for other types of robberies, authorities say.

Police have arrested suspects in 11 of the 17 Howard County bank robberies this year, Myers said.

Although experts say the weak economy probably is a motivating factor in many thefts, they also believe that the high monetary reward possible in a bank robbery, coupled with the relatively low probability of violence, is too tempting to pass up.

Many banks are reluctant to put an armed guard in a branch because it increases substantially the chance of a gunfight, Hall said.

"The average nonbank robbery will net you $150, $200 ... and with a bank you'll get much more than that ... without dealing with up-to-date [security] technology," said Charles F. Wellford, a criminology professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.

There are also more targets from which robbers can choose. In 1999, nearly 84,300 bank branches were open nationwide, according to the American Bankers Association. Last year, there were about 86,000.

Many branches are in easily accessible areas such as supermarkets or shopping centers with few, if any, security guards.

Experts say that many banks lack strong security measures, and that they are reluctant to intimidate customers with armed guards or heavy doors.

"They want to be welcoming and convenient businesses rather than a fortress," Hall said. "If a Secret Service officer was to design a bank, it would look a lot different than it does now."

Howard police say there is relatively little they can do about the increase in bank robberies, other than educating the banking industry on what it can do in case of a robbery.

The Maryland Bankers Association has formed a task force to examine the rising number of robberies and "nip the problem in the bud," said Gretchen Wyatt, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Bankers Association.

"We're looking for a practical way to increase security and communication," she said.