Proposed ATM Curfew Meets With Resistance

A proposed dusk-to-dawn curfew on outdoor automated teller machines in Los Angeles is going to a City Council committee for further exploration even though several lawmakers believe mandatory closures go too far and suggest increasing security instead.

“It’s clear to me that ATMs provide a considerable amount of convenience,” Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, the curfew’s sponsor, told his colleagues at Tuesday’s council meeting. “It is equally clear to me that to some extent it can be argued that they constitute . . . a serious public health hazard.”

The proposal, endorsed by City Atty. James K. Hahn, comes after three homicides in as many months at outdoor ATMs in Southern California. Yet several council members called the curfew an exaggerated response, noting that customers in the city have made millions of transactions at the machines since January with fewer than 50 robberies or attempted robberies.

Councilman Richard Alatorre called the curfew concept “asinine,” saying it could backfire if someone were stranded at night in a dangerous neighborhood and unable to get cash for a cab. Councilman Hal Bernson agreed that a dusk-to-dawn shutdown would interfere too much in people’s lives.

“He needs to get help,” Bernson said of Ridley-Thomas in an interview. “The next thing is going to be: ‘People shouldn’t go out of their house at night because there’s crime.’ You can’t interfere with people’s lives like that.”

Even some council members who seconded the proposal Tuesday to have the Public Safety Committee consider the curfew said they are not sure it is the best solution. Councilman Nate Holden suggested Tuesday that dusk to dawn might be too broad, and that the hours of a curfew could be changed; Councilman Mike Feuer said public safety must be balanced against customer convenience.

As the Public Safety Committee weighs the curfew, it will also consider motions introduced Tuesday by Councilmen Mike Hernandez and Joel Wachs to address the problem of ATM crime without prohibiting nighttime operation.

Hernandez suggests that city government work with bankers to identify safe areas throughout Los Angeles, including police stations and other public facilities, and locate new ATMs in or near such sites. Wachs revived a motion he introduced two years ago that would prohibit loitering around bank machines and establish stronger minimum security standards, including electronic surveillance and lights, nearby.

“It’s going to behoove the banks, instead of fighting these [security] measures, to embrace them so more draconian measures aren’t imposed,” Wachs said

When the anti-loitering ordinance was considered in 1993, the city attorney’s office said it would be found unconstitutional and be preempted by state laws on ATMs.

Since then, San Francisco has passed a law banning loitering for more than one minute within 30 feet of cash machines, but a judge recently narrowed the scope of the ordinance, saying police can arrest loiterers only if they have an “intent to commit a crime.”

Aides to Mayor Richard Riordan said Los Angeles must work with bankers to deal with violence at ATMs, and that at first blush a curfew seems too harsh.

“The focus should be on citing the criminals and taking the criminals off the street rather than changing the lifestyles of law-abiding citizens,” Riordan Press Secretary Noelia Rodriguez said.