More Police Stations to Install ATMs

Hoping to give more ATM users safe havens from robbers, the Los Angeles Police Credit Union will install banking machines in police stations across the city, including several more in the San Fernando Valley.

ATMs have already been available in nine LAPD stations under a pilot program. In a citywide expansion, another 13 automated teller machines are scheduled for installation next year, said Kimberly Phillips, president and chief executive officer of the credit union.

The Foothill, West Valley and North Hollywood police stations are among those due to receive ATMs.

“We’re hoping that the public will see it as a good community service and begin looking at police stations as a good place to start accessing cash,” Phillips said.

The pilot program began when the Los Angeles City Council--at the urging of Councilman Hal Bernson of the northwest San Fernando Valley--voted unanimously in November, 1993, to install ATMs in several stations after a series of crimes against those using the machines, especially the March, 1993, slaying of a pregnant woman at a Sherman Oaks ATM. The banking machines are often located in areas that are deserted at night.

The police credit union, which had already installed ATMs in four LAPD stations for use by credit union members prior to the council’s vote, was ultimately selected by the council to oversee the pilot program, Phillips said.

Since then, the number of ATMs has been expanded to include machines in the Downtown police headquarters, the new and old police academies, a police substation in the Crenshaw-Baldwin Hills Shopping Center, and the Van Nuys, Devonshire, 77th Street, Central and Harbor division stations.

Several banks that had been asked to submit proposals to install ATMs in police stations told city officials in 1993 that they were reluctant to participate because they feared that the cash machines would not be used frequently enough to pay for their installation and maintenance costs.

The credit union, however, had different goals, which were to serve its members in the Police Department and to become a safe refuge for the public to take care of banking needs, particularly during evening hours, Phillips said.

To date, the credit union loses about 15 cents on each transaction made at any of the nine ATMs, Phillips said. The machines must generate an average of 100 transactions a day to justify their cost, banking executives told the council.

The most frequently used ATM is located at police headquarters at Parker Center, where during the past three years 66,000 transactions have been made by credit union members, and 15,000 by others--an average of only 60 per day.

An ATM installed about the same time in the Van Nuys Station has recorded 28,000 member and 5,000 non-member transactions. More recently, an ATM installed three months ago in the Devonshire Division lobby, which is open to the public, has been used by 604 members and 144 others.

“It’s mostly police officers who use it,” said one Devonshire desk officer. “But I don’t think a lot of people are aware” that the machine is available to the public, he added.

But that’s not the case everywhere. An ATM installed several months ago at the 77th Street Station has been well received by residents.

“They’re surprised. It’s a good location for them and they feel safe,” Officer John Jenal said.

Deputy Police Chief Martin Pomeroy said he hopes that installing the machines in stations across the city will reduce the number of ATM-related crimes.

“I think it’s wonderful that we could invite the community to take care of some of their personal business in an atmosphere of safety and comfort,” Pomeroy said.

Pomeroy said he is depending on the news media, community-based policing programs and word of mouth to get the news out to residents that the ATM machines will be available.

Pomeroy is expected to join Bernson and Van Nuys Municipal Court Judge Michael S. Luros on Monday at the Devonshire Division to announce plans to expand the program citywide.