Councilman wants "duress system" at ATMs in wake of teen's murder

Los Angeles City Councilman Greig Smith today called for the installation of a PIN "duress code" system at bank ATM machines throughout the city, saying such a system might have saved the life of a teen murdered after a robbery attempt July 24.

Smith said at least one software manufacturer already has developed such a system, a covert code an ATM customer can use to alert authorities to trouble by having an emergency code embedded in the card. Under the system Smith described, a customer can enter the card's PIN number in reverse order. The cash would still be disbursed, so as not to alert the robber, but police could be notified covertly that a robbery was in progress and where.

Such a system would cost banks approximately $25 to install, said Smith, whose proposal was sent to the council's Public Safety Committee for study.

Smith said he made the proposal after Lily Burk, 17, was abducted while running an errand for her mother. The suspect in her murder, a parolee who had been given a day pass from a halfway house, drove her around and forced her to attempt to get money from ATMs before he killed her later in the day.  He was arrested shortly afterward.

--Jean Merl

Photo: ATMs at the Bank Of America Plaza branch, February 05, 2009. Credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[augusto callejas]

1) how often does this type of robbery happen that they need to install these systems on every ATM machine?
2) reverse PIN doesn't make sense, especially if your PIN's reverse is the same as the at PIN itself -- 4444 reverses to 4444.

[AC]

except in this case it wouldn't have worked, because Lily Burk was using a credit card, not an ATM card, and it didn't have a PIN assigned to it (according to her father).

[Jim P.]

And if your PIN number is symetrical?

Bet it'll cost a *&^% of a lot more than $25 also. Someone has to monitor thousands of ATM split among dozens of banking syastems machines 24/7 in real time for this to do any good which means a command center(s) and staffing and communications links as well as re-programming thousands of atms to provide location info.

Looks like someone was after some good PR but didn't thinkt his through.

[Gigi Hanna]

I see several problems with this well-intentioned proposal. Trying to remember a pin backwards while under duress would probably be a bit of challenge for most people--something that could very well alert a robber that something was amiss. And the system would completely fail in those instances when a person's PIN number is the same backward and forward. For it to work, banks would have to require that its customers not use a palindrome, but that mean resetting PIN numbers for countless customers.

[Gilbert]

Can Greig Smith really be this dumb? Doesn't he know you can put all the codes you want but unless there is police officers or security around the crime will still happen. These council people should leave the policing to others since they have a horrible track record of not knowing what is best for the city. Who put him up to this the Political Union or should as they are referred to the PPL?

[Shag]

This would be very good thing to do. Thugs who rob people often take them to an ATM to withdraw money. That was shameful what happened to the young lady.

[Yvette C Appel]

I think this is a wonderful idea. This would bring back some comfort of the banking industries to know that they care enough about their customers that they would have a safetly system in place. This shows that they care about our well being and not just our money. I think this would draw more people to banks that are making that extra effort for the customer. Since in this day in age that we are trying to keep our families safe when they are away from us as Parents, especially our daughters. This would help relieve some of the fear of our adult children being on their own.

[vaiva]

All we need is a button on the face of the atm machine that automatically calls 911.

That way it doesn't matter if you are using an ATM card a credit card or some other card.

The person in distress pushes one button and law enforcement arrives in seconds.

[Joe Zingher]

As far as how effective it will be, well, which do you think is better if you are the victim? A chance to call for help or no chance? Once he's gotten the victim to the ATM, he knows she hasn't called for help and he knows there's an extra $X000 in the account. He can get that money if he makes sure that the victim doesn't report the card stolen. The bank will pay him more money from your account for killing you. Bet you didn't know that the guy who loads the ATM has an emergency PIN for his benefit, so why not yours?