NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD)- The North Charleston Police Department is working to help underserved communities in the Lowcountry set themselves up for success.

Community liaison for the NCPD, William Leon organized Saturday’s banking event, because of a huge need he says he saw within the Hispanic community.

“There’s been a large influx of new Hispanics coming to our cities, to our towns and they don’t know the system, how things work over here,” Leon said.

Leon says because of that, a lot of them aren’t sure how to set up bank accounts, leading them to carry around large chunks of cash and further leading to crimes committed against them.

“They’ve been victims of a lot of robberies,” Leon said.

To get the cash off the streets, Leon and the NCPD partnered with several banks in the area to help them set up bank accounts.

Leon said, “Once you take the cash out of the streets, that’s a good deterrent factor, and I think deterrence is one of the first things we need to put in place for crime to go down.”

One of the banks helping with the cause was Bank of America.

“Our location here on river avenue in North Charleston, a lot of our clients are Latino,” Financial Center Manager at Bank of America, Andrew Brown said.

Brown says they’re hoping to play just a small part in helping the community become safer.

“Putting money in the bank keeps everyone safe. Robberies have been a big problem, and we want to make sure we’re doing our part in the community,” Brown said.