Wachs Proposes New Measures to Safeguard Customers at ATMs

Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, saying he has been frightened by strangers lurking at night near automated teller machines, Friday proposed tough anti-loitering and security measures for ATMs.

“You can ask any ATM customer about the sense of uneasiness they feel while using these machines either alone or in the presence of suspicious strangers,” Wachs said in introducing his motion.

He proposed a city ordinance outlawing loitering near ATMs and requiring installation of surveillance cameras and mirrors to let customers see behind them.

Wachs’ proposal comes a few days after the New York City Council adopted a tough ATM-safety law. The law was introduced after a councilwoman there was held up at gunpoint while using a cash machine.

Wachs, who said he has contacted New York officials about their law, added that his proposed ordinance draws on personal experience as well. “Fortunately in my case, all they wanted was a handout rather than a holdup,” he said.

Others have not been as lucky. In a 1989 case that drew national attention, Jerome Weber, a prominent leader in Jewish causes, was fatally shot over $40 at a Westside ATM. Last year, a newlywed was killed during a cash machine robbery in Hollywood. Also in 1991, two San Gabriel Valley residents were driven to ATMs before they were killed.

Wachs predicted strong opposition to his proposal from the banking lobby, which has thwarted efforts in Sacramento to impose safety standards on ATMs, such as mandating nightly closures of cash machines with histories of crimes.

A 1990 California law, the first of its kind in the nation, required lighting at the more than 10,000 ATMs in the state, restricted where machines could be located and required banks to give customers safety tips for ATM use. A bill pending in the Legislature would increase the penalty for ATM robberies, described as “the crime of the ‘90s” by the measure’s author, Sen. Charles M. Calderon (D-Whittier).

No figures on ATM crime in the city were available, but law enforcement officials have estimated that there are as many as six ATM robberies in the county every day because the machines are a source of “fast cash and easy money.”

Nancy Badely, spokeswoman for the California Bankers Assn., maintained Friday that cities are preempted by the state from enacting ATM safety legislation.

Wachs disagreed, and said that he is willing to test the issue in the courts. Badely said that requiring further safety measures would result in costs that probably would be passed on to consumers. She said that additional regulations also could force banks to close some ATMs.

“The whole issue of customer safety at ATMs lays with the customer,” she said, contending that the best safeguard is common sense. “If you pull up to an ATM machine and something doesn’t look right--someone is lurking around or a light isn’t working--don’t use it.”

Wachs called Badely’s remarks “outrageous.”

Legal experts said a prohibition on loitering could be difficult because of civil liberties concerns. Wachs’ plan was sent to the Public Safety Committee. A public hearing will be scheduled.