I don't know about how others might look at it, but I don't like seeing an armed guard outside the Bank of America branch office on State Street in New London.

It looks menacing, not neighborly, and borderline paranoid.

After all, there are other banks downtown that don't seem to find it necessary to fortify their front doors.

And Bank of America doesn't post guards at most of its other branches in eastern Connecticut, despite the number of bank robberies that occur in suburban locations. You certainly won't see one, for instance, outside the Bank of America on Main Street in Mystic.

Why the stigma for New London, I asked a spokesman for the bank.

The short answer was that the bank doesn't comment on security measures, for obvious reasons.

The Bank of America, the spokesman added, makes the safety of its employees and customers a priority. Fair enough.

He also suggested that a history of crime in the area of a bank office, not necessarily bank robberies at that location, could also trigger a security response, like the posting of an armed guard.

An armed guard has also been posted regularly outside the Bank of America branch on Boston Post Road in Waterford, where there were some particularly rough robberies in 2007, in which the robber made all the customers lie on the floor and put a gun to tellers' heads.

Police eventually got their man, though, and he was arraigned earlier this month in connection with the two robberies in Waterford and a third at the People's United Bank in Norwich.

I understand why traumatized bank employees at Bank of America might have felt reassured by an armed guard outside, especially before the case was solved. They also now stand behind safety glass.

And yet, I wonder, had there been a guard posted when the bank robberies occurred, would a shootout have ensued?

I guess you have to hope against all hope that a guard will keep the robbers away in the first place. Otherwise, it's the makings for real trouble.

I turned to the American Bankers Association for some guidance on how often banks use armed guards. On a Google search I could only find references to armed bank guards at Bank of America branches in Tennessee and southern California.

Doug Johnson, vice president of risk management for the bankers association, said he doesn't have any statistics on armed guards and the decision to use them is made on a case-by-case basis by individual banks. In lieu of guards, he said, many banks with worries about security at particular branches may choose to employ greeters at the front door.

A smiling bank employee at the door might dissuade a robber, who doesn't want attention, and at the same time adds another level of customer service.

I could find a record of only one bank robbery at the Bank of America branch on State Street in a search of The Day's recent archives. It occurred in 2005. The robber said he had a gun in the note, but a weapon was not shown.

The robber, who lived in North Stonington, was arrested two years later, and his wife told police at the time that she didn't know where the money was coming from for her husband to spend every weekend at the casinos.

I don't think that 4-year-old incident, or the level of crime nearby, justifies the unfriendly gesture of posting an armed guard in downtown New London. Maybe the Bank of America should consider a smiling greeter on State Street, instead of someone wearing a gun on the hip.

This is the opinion of David Collins.