'Banks should constantly monitor CCTV footage from their ATM booths'

Dinesh Kumar Gupta, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime (North), says lack of security guards at ATM booths encourages criminals to target ATM machines.

He suggests that banks should constantly monitor the CCTV footage from their ATM booths. Excerpts from an interview with Dinesh Kumar Gupta, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime (North), says lack of security guards at ATM booths encourages criminals to target ATM machines.

He suggests that banks should constantly monitor the CCTV footage from their ATM booths. Excerpts from an interview with Shiv Sunny: 

Why do burglars find targeting ATMs lucrative?
There are way too many ATMs and many of them are not guarded. ATMs are open 24 hours and there is lesser public and police presence on roads at nights.
That gives them a lot of lonely time to operate. The winter season, mainly the fog in the early morning hours, provides them enough cover to go about their business.
The night hours give them ample time to operate.

How much time do the burglars generally require to make away with an ATM?
The process of cutting the ATM chest takes them anywhere between 30 minutes to one hour. Setting up their own equipment for cutting off the ATM takes a while more.
 
How easy or difficult it is to break open an ATM machine?
The ATMs have a heavy base and the machine too overall is very heavy. Breaking open or carrying away the entire machine is not an easy job. So, expert gangs generally put their energy only in breaking open the ATM chest that is filled with cash.
Welding machine makes their work easier. Gangs which do not possess the expertise find it difficult to break open the chest as they come ill-prepared. So they try to uproot the entire machine.
 
Technically, how well equipped are the criminals who target ATMs?
The regular burglars are unaware of how to uproot or break open ATM. Special knowledge about the structure and design of ATMs in order to break open the ATM chest is required. So, these gangs draft in at least one person who has worked with banks and ATMs in the past.
 
What guidelines and suggestions are issued to the banks regarding safety of ATMs?
During police’s meetings with the bank authorities, we insist on necessary CCTV camera installation and trained security guards at every ATM booth. We also suggest to them that they should have arrangements for continuous monitoring of CCTV footage to be able to respond quickly upon sighting any suspicious activity.
Banks are also advised to inform the local police prior to transferring large amount of cash from the bank to ATMs so that the risks of cash vans being hijacked midway are reduced.
 
What other features could help provide better security to ATMs?
Burglars are aware about the presence of CCTV cameras, so they take care of that before tampering with ATMs.

I personally feel banks should have a mechanism by which an alarm is raised elsewhere as soon as CCTV cameras or certain parts of ATMs are tampered with.
 
Why is it often difficult to crack cases in which ATM machines were either cut open or uprooted?
This is a kind of burglary in which they leave little clues. First thing they do is remove the CCTV cameras.

They remove the machine after ripping it off because of which we are left with no fingerprints. So we end up having many blind cases.

But there are also many cases in which we caught the culprits and recovered the stolen cash. CCTV cameras installed elsewhere outside the ATM booth often helps.
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Why do burglars find targeting ATMs lucrative?
There are way too many ATMs and many of them are not guarded. ATMs are open 24 hours and there is lesser public and police presence on roads at nights.

That gives them a lot of lonely time to operate. The winter season, mainly the fog in the early morning hours, provides them enough cover to go about their business.
The night hours give them ample time to operate.

How much time do the burglars generally require to make away with an ATM?
The process of cutting the ATM chest takes them anywhere between 30 minutes to one hour. Setting up their own equipment for cutting off the ATM takes a while more.
 
How easy or difficult it is to break open an ATM machine?
The ATMs have a heavy base and the machine too overall is very heavy. Breaking open or carrying away the entire machine is not an easy job. So, expert gangs generally put their energy only in breaking open the ATM chest that is filled with cash.

Welding machine makes their work easier. Gangs which do not possess the expertise find it difficult to break open the chest as they come ill-prepared. So they try to uproot the entire machine.
 
Technically, how well equipped are the criminals who target ATMs?
The regular burglars are unaware of how to uproot or break open ATM. Special knowledge about the structure and design of ATMs in order to break open the ATM chest is required. So, these gangs draft in at least one person who has worked with banks and ATMs in the past.
 
What guidelines and suggestions are issued to the banks regarding safety of ATMs?
During police’s meetings with the bank authorities, we insist on necessary CCTV camera installation and trained security guards at every ATM booth. We also suggest to them that they should have arrangements for continuous monitoring of CCTV footage to be able to respond quickly upon sighting any suspicious activity.

Banks are also advised to inform the local police prior to transferring large amount of cash from the bank to ATMs so that the risks of cash vans being hijacked midway are reduced.
 
What other features could help provide better security to ATMs?
Burglars are aware about the presence of CCTV cameras, so they take care of that before tampering with ATMs.

I personally feel banks should have a mechanism by which an alarm is raised elsewhere as soon as CCTV cameras or certain parts of ATMs are tampered with.
 
Why is it often difficult to crack cases in which ATM machines were either cut open or uprooted?
This is a kind of burglary in which they leave little clues. First thing they do is remove the CCTV cameras.

They remove the machine after ripping it off because of which we are left with no fingerprints. So we end up having many blind cases.

But there are also many cases in which we caught the culprits and recovered the stolen cash. CCTV cameras installed elsewhere outside the ATM booth often helps.