Crime at ATMs Drops, Study Says

Despite a rash of ATM crime that has led to three local murders this year, a new study released Thursday by the banking industry says the level of ATM crime has been halved since 1992, and the likelihood of an attack at a bank machine is at an all-time low.

According to the survey by the California Bankers Assn., crime at automated tellers in California plummeted between 1992 and 1995, to 261 from 499 reported incidents statewide.

The association found that a bank customer’s chances of being attacked at an ATM on any one visit are now about one in 2.5 million, or “nearly as slim as winning the California lottery,” as the study put it.

In the city of Los Angeles, the survey found, the decline in ATM-related crime was even more precipitous: 74 incidents last year, compared to 152 in 1992. The pace this year is roughly similar to 1995, with 63 ATM-related crimes reported so far, according to Los Angeles Police Department data.

The survey--which covered only banks and represented 55% of the automated tellers in the state--was the latest fodder in the ongoing debate over how best to protect an uneasy public from ATM crime. The Los Angeles City Council’s Public Safety Committee is considering a proposed dusk-to-dawn curfew on outdoor ATMs, spurred in part by the 3 a.m. murder of a man outside a Crenshaw district bank in September that was the third fatal attack in Los Angeles County in three months.

While the number of attacks are falling, the cluster of ATM-related deaths has riveted the public’s attention on the risks of using a consumer service that has become an integral part of modern life.

Opponents of the curfew proposal, which is scheduled for a hearing Monday, have contended that it goes too far and impinges on public convenience in the name of public safety.

But backers of the measure say that even the low crime rates reported by the banking association and the police are unacceptably high.

“Try being the next victim and see how meaningful those statistics are,” said Councilman Nate Holden, who has endorsed the curfew. “In 1992, the safety features we have today were not in place. We didn’t have the cameras and the lighting we have now. But even with those so-called improvements, the crimes are still being committed. It’s not a safe environment in which to do business.”

Police have encouraged ATM customers to avoid outdoor machines after dark, and to instead patronize the growing number of machines operating in 24-hour supermarkets, hospitals and other businesses.

Also, police are reminding citizens that the LAPD has automated teller machines in 13 stations and five other LAPD facilities, and that these are available to the public 24 hours a day.

The survey was a follow-up to similar industrywide polls done in 1986 and 1992.

Larry Kurmel, executive director of the banking association, agreed with Holden in attributing the drop in ATM crime to safety improvements at bank machines. He also credited a state law implemented in 1993 that mandated minimum safety requirements for lighting, landscaping and visibility at bank machines.

Since then, Kurmel added, most ATMs have been furnished with security cameras, rear-view mirrors and other safety features, and bank customers have also become more street-smart about avoiding ATMs when alone after dark.

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Crime at ATMs

Robberies at automated teller machines, which make up a small fraction of all robberies, have declined in recent years in Los Angeles, according to a study released Thursday by the California Bankers Assn.

‘96*: 63

* As of Oct. 23

Source: Los Angeles Police Department