Convenient for Whom? : Banking: ATMs offer easy access for both customers and the thieves who target them. Banks and police, however, say the crime rate is still relatively minuscule.
Californians collectively use their automated teller machines about 600 million times a year. But it’s taken just a few recent ATM crimes to kindle fear among bank customers about using the machines alone or at night.
In recent weeks, a pregnant woman was stabbed to death at an ATM in the San Fernando Valley, while earlier this month a couple was shot at a teller machine in Orange County, allegedly by a fired postal worker who was wanted for murder.
But the banks offer statistics showing that while ATM crime is rising, there is no “wave” of ATM-related incidents, and in Los Angeles at least, police figures confirm that the number of crimes near ATMs remains minuscule relative to the machines’ use.
For those reasons, the banks say that while they’re concerned about the recent ATM violence, they don’t plan any major changes in their robotic tellers’ location or hours of operation.
The crimes, however, have highlighted the two-edged nature of ATMs: Their 24-hour access is appealing, but users are often easy targets.
Only 10 days ago, Mark Richard Hilbun allegedly ended a two-day rampage by shooting two customers using a Wells Fargo Bank ATM in Fountain Valley near midnight. The victims survived, and Hilbun was arrested 30 minutes later.
In late March, 29-year-old Sherri Foreman was stabbed near a Great Western Bank teller machine in Sherman Oaks during an apparent failed carjacking. Both Foreman and her 13-week-old fetus died.
Violent crime at ATMs is not new, of course. In 1989, an Encino man was fatally shot while withdrawing $40 from a Wells Fargo ATM in Los Angeles. And in 1991, a Sacramento woman was kidnaped, raped and shot during an ATM holdup.
But a 1992 survey by the California Bankers Assn. found that 499 ATM crimes occurred statewide out of 599 million transactions at 6,677 machines--or one crime per 1.2 million transactions. A CBA survey six years earlier showed one crime per 1.9 million transactions.
“No business wants their customers to be injured,” said Bill Wipprecht, Wells Fargo’s security chief and head of the security committee for the CBA. “But when you look at the publicity on ATMs . . . one would think that ATM crime is rampant, when in fact it’s nothing near the case.”
The banks have an interest in downplaying ATM crime, of course. They’ve invested heavily in machine installation and maintenance, which in turn helps boost their profits. (ATMs, among other things, cut down on the need for human tellers and don’t require overtime pay.)
Yet police statistics confirm that ATM crimes in Los Angeles are still rare contrasted with other violence. Although many police departments don’t yet track ATM crime, the LAPD began keeping closer tabs last year by placing a check-off box on its crime report forms.
The department logged 152 incidents for 1992, or an average of 13 a month. In this year’s first quarter, there were 62 incidents, or about 20 a month--a tiny number compared to the other robberies and assaults that occurred.
Yet the recent violence at the ATMs prompted Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson to propose putting the teller machines in police stations so customers would have a safe harbor if they need cash.
“Fear is up, and that’s what really matters,” said Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker, commander of the LAPD’s San Fernando Valley units. “To people living their daily lives, it does them no good to see statistics. I meet with people who are extremely apprehensive about every move they make, whether it’s to just pump gas or access an ATM or to take their kids to school.”
But Kroeker also noted that the banks’ “posture is that a few celebrated cases should not make them alter a service program that has accommodated millions of people, and I can’t argue with that.”
After the Foreman murder, Great Western decided it “would re-review all of the ATM locations in the country with an eye toward what, if anything, we should be doing in terms of security,” but nothing specific has been decided, said spokesman Ian Campbell. (Great Western also put up $12,500 in reward money in the Foreman case, which was matched by the city.)
Banks will occasionally close an ATM permanently or just at night if it’s a site of repeated crime. That’s the policy of the state’s largest bank, Bank of America, which handles roughly 30 million ATM transactions a month, said spokesman Harvey Radin.
Rich Wyler, spokesman for First Interstate Bank of California, said that “in some cases, we’ve moved an ATM inside the branch, which means it’s not accessible at night, of course.” First Interstate, with 500 machines statewide, reports four ATM crimes so far this year, unchanged from the same period a year ago. It had 24 incidents during 1992, Wyler said.
But closing an ATM “is a rare step because the crimes happen so randomly,” said CBA spokesman Tom Celebrezze. His group’s survey showed that while nearly half of last year’s ATM crimes occurred between 8 p.m. and midnight, the rest were spread evenly across other times of the day.
An ATM can be closed “in a matter of minutes,” he said, “but this has to be balanced with the consumers’ desire to have access to the machines.”
The banks have stepped up efforts to advise customers of ATM safety, offering such tips as not going alone at night and using only well-lit machines. The banks also note that many ATMs are now in shopping centers and other indoor venues, and Bank of America has opened full branches with ATMs in eight supermarkets in California.
Also, a state law that took effect in 1991 requires banks to provide certain minimum lighting and unobstructed landscaping for newly installed ATMs, and all ATMs that were installed before then must be brought up to the new code by July.
But whether the changes will make consumers more confident about using ATMs at night is hard to say. Some banks say they don’t even know for certain that nighttime ATM usage is down.
“It’s just not something we track,” said First Interstate’s Wyler.
Added Wells Fargo’s Wipprecht: “We have just recently asked that question.”
