'Deploying guards isn't enough'

After Tuesday’s brutal attack on a woman inside an ATM, Bangaloreans are wondering why banks haven’t been taking enough precaution though incidents of robberies and break-ins are so common at the ATMs in the City.

Now that the Home Ministry has directed all banks in the City to keep a round-the-clock security, people are hoping that ATMs will stop being nightmares. A more secure form of entry and exit from ATMs and a full-time manual monitoring by CCTVs have to be ensured at all cash vending kiosks.

A senior police official with the department of crime, Bangalore City Police who didn’t want to be quoted, observes that most of the security guards at ATMs are not even trained in basic combat. “The guards have to be physically fit and mentally agile. They need to be trained in basic unarmed combat but that’s not the case. Most of the guards are ordinary people, who are mostly from the North-East or interior parts of the State, who work as guards at night and take up alternative jobs during day time elsewhere to make both ends meet,” says the senior police officer.

The officer says that the police have written to the RBI pointing out the lax in security at banks and ATMs. “Owing to huge investments involved, no bank seems ready to invest that kind of money in sprucing up its security. This is something that needs to be reviewed and tightened immediately,” he adds.  
 
Another senior officer with the Internal Security Division, in-charge of issuing licences to security agencies to hire these guards, says, a total internal security system must be put in place. “More than deploying security guards, an internal integrated security system is needed where the security of all ATMs across the City can be viewed and monitored on one screen,” he explains. 

Most women in the City say that they would rather go to an ATM that’s attached to a bank than go to a standalone one. Laura Nayak, a medical practitioner, says she would never go to a standalone ATM. “Those attached to banks would certainly be safer than the ATMs located in isolated areas,” she says.

Laura further points out that most of the guards at ATMs are poorly paid. “The guards get paid only Rs 5,000 for 12 hours of duty. This is a pittance, considering there is so much of risk involved,” she reasons.  

They feel the presence of a guard only acts as a deterrent but if someone wants to break into an ATM, they can easily attack the guard. Remya, a professional feels that women are being targeted. “I don’t think even security guards will help much because if someone has come with the intention of breaking into an ATM, they will do so. Guards need to be better trained to fight back in such situations,” she says.   

Nikhil AS, an application developer with a bank, feels that keeping security guards will not help, additional security measures need to be taken. He suggests, “It is not just enough to have CCTVs in bank. There must be someone round-the-clock to monitor the activities on the CCTV. It would be good to introduce a system where people could swipe into an ATM and the door automatically gets locked and wouldn’t open until the person swipes out. This would ensure that the person who goes inside to withdraw
money is safe.”