What bankers need to know about ‘First Amendment audits’

Today's episode is presented by Intrafi, and this is a little bit of a different episode because I don't have a guest. Today I'm gonna be talking to you about an article that I recently reported for the ABA Banking Journal, and it's an article that doesn't have a guest for a very good reason. And then you'll, you'll understand as I as I talk a little bit more about this topic. So to begin, I want you to imagine this scenario.

Someone arrives at your branch and begins walking up and down on the sidewalk in front of it. Doesn't come in the branch, but just walks up and down in front of it. He has his iPhone out and he is video recording every customer, every employee, every guest who comes in or out. And then imagine that this, that this person stays there in front of your brand for hours.

At a certain point, perhaps one of two of your bank employees will go out to talk to 'em, ask some questions, and gently try to get the individual to stop recording. Then imagine that instead of complying, this individual responds with suspicious questions. So, what kind of vault do you have? What are the procedures for how you access it? The the individual won't leave, and honestly, the suspicious questions begin to trigger threat instincts in your employees.

Police are called and then that interaction is filmed. What's happening here is that the iPhone wielder is quite likely a self-proclaimed First Amendment auditor, and the goal is to test the limits of the laws that permit filming from public places like sidewalks. For some auditors, the true goal is to goad the police into arresting them, and thus to fail their audit.

This practice started several years ago, partly as an adjunct to the movement to promote police accountability and fueled in over the last decade by the ubiquity of smartphones and cheap data. Auditors would film police arrests or traffic stops, or perhaps enter public, public facilities like police stations or post offices or town halls, trying to capture public officials crossing the legal lines as when they can, when individuals can and cannot record encounters.

You can, if you go on YouTube, you can find thousands of videos of these First Amendment auditors in public places trying to goad police into cre, into arresting them or creating some kind of a conflict. But over the past several months, one auditor has pivoted from targeting public facilities to targeting banks, particularly in Missouri and Kansas. He has tens of thousands of followers on YouTube where he posts edited versions of his encounters that get hundreds of thousands of views.

And in the article I wrote, I didn't link to the channel, and I don't, I'm not gonna say the name of the channel here because I don't wanna draw any further attention to this auditor. His videos are monetized by YouTube and thus they generate income from advertising every time they're viewed. And I'm not gonna, so I'm not gonna I'm not gonna throw any more income this way. There are other auditors, videos of banks that have showed up as well.

The videos usually follow a script like the one I outlined at the start. Top of this episode, noticeable video recording over a period of several hours that triggers a bank employee to come out and confront the auditor. Usually the banker asks why the guy's filming and politely asks him to stop filming, either for security purposes or for the comfort of clients.

The auditor asks provocative questions, designed to bait the bankers into calling the police, or perhaps getting more confrontational themselves. One banker who is recorded in the video asking the auditor to stop filming and move along was identified by YouTube commenters, and he ended up receiving voicemail death threats. In fact, it's because of the threats that bankers received that I granted anonymity to everybody who I spoke to for this conversation. Spoke to for this article.

Another bank received so many threatening phone calls after the auditor posted the video that the branch had to shut down its phone system. This particular auditor also uses sexist slurs like Karen to describe the bank employees who ask him to stop recording. So I asked a bank a senior bank executive at one of the community banks that was targeted by this individual. You know, what the be what, what is the best way to handle this kind of situation?

And he says, it runs against all of our training, but the best thing to do is ignore them. One bank senior management reminded employees that video recording from streets or public sidewalks is legal. These in, in a memo to employees across their branch network, they said These people are hoping to provoke a reaction. They are hoping that we will engage with them. They're looking for a fight. They want us to call the police. Let's not give them what they want.

To protect the privacy of employees and customers, banks may choose to close their blinds and ensure that commute computer monitors are not visible from the street or sidewalk. But the line in this case is literally bank property, bank owned parking lots, drive-throughs, or interior of branches. If an auditor trespasses, the branch manager advises the employees to state a simple message asking the auditor to leave. Then walk away and activate the security plan.

The bankers also say to be mindful of wearing name tags in the presence of the auditor. So if for, if for example, an employee goes out to ask an auditor to leave make sure you're not wearing your name tag because the, that might reveal a full name or other personal information that can be used to create a negative calling campaign or email harassment from the, from, from people who watch the videos.

And as for those threatening phone calls, bankers should keep in mind that they may be being recorded by the caller. Employees are advised by the, by the bank leadership simply to take a caller's name and number and say they'll forward it to the appropriate party. Don't get into a conversation about this. Now I am gonna take a quick moment here to thank our sponsor for this episode.

Today's episode is sponsored by Banking with Interest, a podcast from Intrafi featuring in-depth analysis and insight into the policy changes reshaping the banking industry with insightful interviews and previews of pending policy challenges. The podcast is an essential listen for anyone connected to the financial services industry.

There was a fantastic conversation recently with Jill Castilla of Citizens Bank of Edmond talking about financial inclusion, talking about innovation, and talking about Citizens bank of Edmond's, new bank for members of the military called Roger.

Great conversation with Jill, and it's hosted by Rob Blackwell, an award-winning former journalist with more than two decades of experience as an expert on financial services policy, who is now Chief Content Officer and head of External Affairs at Intrafi. So you to listen to the podcast, go to Intrafi.com to learn more. And thank you again to Intrafi Banking with Interest Podcast for sponsoring this episode.

So back to the conversation or back to the issue of First Amendment audits you can find a lot more examples online of First Amendment audits that target banks of all sizes from little community banks all the way up to the largest nationwide nationwide financial institutions. And this is a problem that may grow since auditors can often monetize their videos with YouTube advertising. The more confrontational the video, the more views it attracts.

And that means more money For the auditors who are posting the video, here's what one banker said who was filmed by an auditor and then threatened by members of the public. "They want this to escalate, and you don't know that we're not used to

people who want to escalate. They're here to antagonize." That's something that's hard for, again, hard for bankers with a customer orientation who just want to be, have a conversation and try to try to engage rationally with somebody who's filming their branch. But it's something that you need to keep in mind if you see this kind of thing come up. The a BA Bank security committee has actually published a series of tips for dealing with first Amendment auditing activity.

And that's available on ABAs website at aba.com/risk. Go ahead and take a look. It provides tips for if auditors are on public property, if auditors enter a branch, if the situation escalates to harassment and threats and engage and, and includes several tips that have come directly from bank security professionals as well as from the banks that have been affected by these these challenges and ABAs risk management pro professionals here on our staff. So that's the rest of that.

That's the conversation today. Just wanted to, you know, for, obviously I didn't want to put any anybody who's already been victimized by, I didn't wanna put anybody who's already been victimized by threatening phone calls, you know, on the air to say, you know, tell us about your experience.

But I did wanna make sure that bankers understand what's going on out there-- this is the kind of activity that could come to your branch, could come to your bank -- and make sure that bankers experience with these First Amendment audits is communicated to a broader audience of, of financial industry professionals. So thanks so much for listening. Thanks to Intrafi's Banking with Interest Podcast for sponsoring this episode. We'll be back with you again very soon.