More ATMs to Be Installed at Police Stations

Saying it will promote community-based policing, law enforcement officials and city leaders Monday announced plans to install banking machines in police stations throughout the city in an effort to provide residents with a safe haven to take care of their banking.

“We invite our citizens to come to these ATMs and use them,” said Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Martin Pomeroy during a news conference at the LAPD’s Devonshire station.

In a citywide expansion, 13 automated teller machines will be added to LAPD stations. Currently nine LAPD facilities have ATMs, five of which were installed under a pilot program approved last year by the Los Angeles City Council.

In the San Fernando Valley, ATMs are already positioned inside the Devonshire and Van Nuys police stations with three more scheduled to be installed next year at the West Valley, North Hollywood and Foothill divisions.

“We hope this will offer people a positive reason to stop by police stations,” said Kimberly Phillips, chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Police Credit Union, which was chosen by the council to oversee the pilot program.

Under the program, additional banking machines were placed at five police stations after a series of crimes against ATM users, which climaxed in the slaying of a pregnant woman at a Sherman Oaks ATM last year.

The goal was to provide residents with a safe place to use an ATM, particularly at night.

In addition to providing officers and residents with quick cash, the machines have even been popular among suspects who have accessed money to make bail, quipped one LAPD officer.

To date, the credit union loses about 15 cents on each transaction at any of the nine ATMs available, but at the same time it accomplishes its main goal of serving its members and the public, Phillips said.

It has been estimated that the machines must generate an average of 100 transactions a day to justify their cost.

Pomeroy was joined at the news conference by City Councilman Hal Bernson and Van Nuys Municipal Court Judge Michael Luros.

It was Luros who approached Bernson about installing ATMs in police facilities. Luros said he hopes the machines will help restore the public’s confidence in the police, shaken following the Los Angeles riots.

“I wanted to demonstrate to the public that the vast majority of police are mature officers who are dedicated to serving the public,” Luros said. “I felt this was a way to reintroduce the public to police under neutral circumstances.”