ATMs at Police Stations to Be Studied : Banking: City Council votes to look into the proposal--first suggested by a judge--to increase security for users of automated teller machines.

Responding to a rash of stabbings and shootings at automated teller machines, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to study whether to put ATMs in police station lobbies.

The proposal by Councilman Hal Bernson calls for ATMs to be installed on a trial basis at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division in Northridge and one at an inner-city station to be determined later by police.

Originally proposed by a Van Nuys Municipal Court judge, the plan would offer ATM users a secure location to complete banking transactions, Bernson said.

“This is not going to solve the world’s problems, we know that,” he told council members. “All this is going to provide is a safe harbor for individuals who want to use the ATM at night.”

If the pilot program is a success, Bernson said, the city can consider extending the program to all police stations.

“I think it’s a really great idea,” said Councilwoman Joy Picus, adding that ATM robberies have gotten more violent.

The proposal has been strongly backed by Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker, commander of the San Fernando Valley police units. Bank officials have given the idea a lukewarm reception, saying many questions about the proposal remain unanswered.

Tom Celebrezze, a spokesman for the security committee of the California Bankers Assn., said he is intrigued by the idea but wonders how the city will decide which bank will be chosen to install the ATMs.

Nevertheless, “Unusual times call for unusual measures,” said Celebrezze, whose organization represents about 400 banks in the state.

Celebrezze’s questions and others will be answered by the city’s General Services Department, which was instructed by the council to study the proposal and contact “major Los Angeles banks to determine the feasibility of placing two ATMs in LAPD lobbies.”

The study is expected to take about 60 days, city officials said. It would then be considered by a City Council committee before coming before the entire council for a final vote.

The plan was conceived by Van Nuys Judge Michael S. Luros, who made the suggestions in letters to Bernson, Kroeker, Chief Willie L. Williams, Police Commission President Jesse A. Brewer and City Atty. James K. Hahn.

Luros said in an interview Tuesday that he is gratified that his idea was endorsed by the council.

He said he came up with the idea after following newspaper and radio accounts of recent robberies at ATMs. Luros said some of his friends told him they were afraid to use the machines.

Luros said a side benefit of his plan is that residents would come in contact with police on a positive basis, rather than always during confrontation.

“The general public only gets to the counter of a police station for negative cases, like getting a ticket or bailing someone out,” he said.

One of the ATM robberies that Luros said persuaded him to suggest the plan was the stabbing death of Sherri Foreman, 29, a pregnant woman who died March 31 after she was stabbed near an ATM in Sherman Oaks by a would-be carjacker. Her 13-week-old fetus did not survive.

A week later, police arrested a suspect in connection with Foreman’s death.

In another recent case, Hans Christian Herzog was shot and killed March 5 near an ATM in Lancaster. Two suspects have been arrested in that case.

Two weeks earlier, a 30-year-old Encino man was shot in the leg during a robbery in front of an ATM in Tarzana.

Bank representatives urge ATM customers to park their cars in well-lighted areas, use well-lighted ATMs, avoid cash machines with nearby hedges or hiding places, and bring company if a transaction must be made at night.

Customers should spend as little time as possible at the machine, cash should be put away immediately, and customers should be alert at all times and ready to cancel a transaction if strangers appear.

Police say it is difficult to gauge whether ATM robberies and murders are increasing, because the LAPD does not keep statistics on the number of ATM holdups, instead lumping them in with all street robberies.