DAVID FLOREEN
‘Cost issue’
Proposed legislation that would mandate banks to have specific security devices and safety procedures in place in automated teller machine vestibules has members of the banking industry debating and reassessing the current ATM safety environment.
But regardless of legislation or additional security devices installed at ATM vestibules, bankers and industry officials say crime is often inevitable and no one can guarantee 100 percent safety at all times.
“Cameras, lighting and emergency phones are not going to prevent a person with a real intent to rob [from committing a crime],” said Jim Zardecki, vice president and director of loss prevention and security for Sovereign Bank New England. “If there is really someone who is going to commit a robbery or assault, it is just as likely it will happen at the vehicle or walking down the street as it would be at an ATM.”
While depositing a check and withdrawing cash at an ATM in Brooklyn Heights in 1991, Bay State native David Breen was robbed at gunpoint, shot in the back, endured seven hours of emergency surgery and given his last rites by a Catholic priest. Until that day, Breen said he was “just a kid from Stoughton.”
Breen testified at a June 18 banking hearing in support of state legislation that would require banks to install specific security requirements at ATM vestibules, including better lighting, emergency phones and security locks on doors.
Breen testified that any object with a magnetic strip would allow a person access into an ATM vestibule. In an effort to verify that statement, reporters from Banker & Tradesman attempted to access random ATM vestibules around the Boston area with various magnetic-stripe cards.
In Boston’s Downtown Crossing, an old MBTA pass and a current Boston gym membership card opened ATM vestibules after hours at Wainwright Bank, Sovereign Bank, Century Bank and Citizens Bank. Sovereign Bank and Fleet Bank vestibules in Brookline’s Coolidge Corner were also accessed with a subway pass. However, some Fleet vestibules at various Boston locations were not accessible with anything but an ATM card.
“This isn’t a secret that a magnetic swipe card allows you to get in [to a vestibule],” said David Floreen, senior vice president of Government Affairs and Trust Services at the Massachusetts Bankers Association. “There are some sophisticated mechanisms that are being developed to specifically use an ATM card only [to access a bank vestibule], but then it becomes an access issue and a cost issue.”
Floreen, who testified on behalf of the MBA and its members at the Banks and Banking Committee hearing, said Massachusetts banks are concentrating on technological improvements in ATM security and focusing on consumer education to help make ATM banking a more secure process.
“Banks are very mindful of customer safety and [banks] have to balance that with the cost of going to the next step and determining the convenience [to the customer],” said Floreen. “Does an ATM card give you guaranteed security? No. But is [a consumer] going to go to a non-high traffic area late at night to get cash? Presumably not.”
According to FleetBoston Financial spokesman Jim Schepker, all banks repeatedly issue safety tips to consumers, including using well-lighted ATMs, securing their cash and being aware and cautious of the environment outside the ATM vestibule.
But the ATM card is a convenience card, and Schepker said that “because banks share a network, there is widespread availability to share vestibules.” Limiting access to enclosed ATM stations to potential criminals also could limit access by consumers not directly affiliated with the ATM’s owner bank, he said.
Because of the universal sharing among ATM systems, Schepker said banks should invest in better technology.
“[Fleet] is more actively looking at digital camera monitoring technology that would allow for real-time surveillance, and we think that this is the next-best technology,” said Schepker.
Comfort Zone
John Pierce, manager of marketing for the financial and banking division of ADT Security Services in Florida, said digital-imaging cameras are the newest piece of security technology that banks are buying.
Pierce said most ATMs are alarmed and security cameras are in use, but there are technology systems that banks can use to better protect their consumers.
“There are above-average security requirements for banks to invest in … the bank can add stronger controls including more surveillance cameras, bullet-resistant panels to the teller environment, man traps – enclosures which lock the culprit between the vestibule and the branch themselves – and digital imaging,” said Pierce. “Digital-imaging systems are the new thing … they store and transmit hundreds of thousands of images and transmit them remotely. Customers want safer transactions and better environments, and banks are taking an initiative to make the area better with digital imaging in ATM areas.”
But Schepker said banks should be cognizant of the pitfalls of advanced technology.
While some banks provide panic buttons or emergency telephones in ATM vestibules, Schepker said such devices need to be monitored and carefully explored before being installed to ensure they are not prone to prank panic alerts or fake 911 phone calls.
“Fleet ATM vestibules do not have emergency phones or panic buttons … these things always need to be explored at the local level with law enforcement and bank associations to examine, if [specific equipment] is considered, what will be the financial impact and what is the likely value of that technology,” said Schepker. “Will a panic button really help prevent crime? Those sorts of technologies may not protect consumers and could lead to a nuisance factor, for example pranksters alerting law enforcement from vestibules.”
Bankers say they continue to make every effort to increase security and educate consumers on common-sense tactics.
“I think the banking industry as a whole always tries to address any safety issue they can, even with the understanding that if we don’t do adequate jobs it’s likely that legislation will be passed,” said Zardecki.
Zardecki said Sovereign ATM vestibules maintain lighting standards and good lighting conditions, and the bank always tries to make sure that locations of vestibules are in plain viewing sight without hidden corners or blind spots, but added that it is still up to the customer to be cautious.
“You do have the privacy with a vestibule at the ATM, but by the same token, if someone really wants to rob someone it can be done waiting outside the vestibule,” said Zardecki. “Part of the safety tips are to [suggest that ATM users] report unusual behavior and don’t use the ATM if you suspect suspicious activity. The consumer needs to protect themselves.”
The perception that being closed inside a vestibule makes for a safer transaction is not necessarily true and, while banks do take security precautions, bankers say they cannot prevent a crime from happening and rely on the customer to use common sense and report suspicious activity.
“There is probably some perception that a vestibule is safer and that is not necessarily inaccurate – a vestibule can mitigate the robberies or assaults and it eliminates a segment of the potential criminals from an act of taking place, but it doesn’t eliminate an act from happening while you’re walking down the street,” said Zardecki.
According to Schepker, “Consumers need to bring the same discretion to both [an unenclosed] sidewalk ATM or vestibule ATM. The perception that a vestibule is safer … is not going to enhance your safety – maybe your comfort, but not your safety.”
