More info needed on ATM crimes

Almost 20 years ago, the murder of Dana Feitler for her ATM card and PIN prompted the Chicago City Council to form a panel and issue a report on ATM safety.

The report called for the city to keep track of the problem. In 1999, the then Office of Banks and Real Estate also called for the state to keep track of violent crimes involving ATMs. Today, there are no official records of the problem.

It would be very easy for the city, county or state to fix that shortcoming just by requiring every ATM owner to e-mail a master list of their ATMs and addresses to the police. The police would download that information into the computer and every robbery, attempted robbery, batter, abduction, rape and murder associated with those ATMs would instantly become public knowledge.

ATM safety is a serious concern. The General Assembly passed a law setting standards for ATM safety in 1996. In 2002 and 2003, the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police lobbied for and testified in favor of making an emergency reverse PIN system mandatory. Since that time, Doyle Parker, Robert Armfield, Lynne Weiss and god only knows how many others have been murdered for their ATM card and PIN.

Yet today, we still don't know how many of these crimes are occurring. It can't be the cost to the police, because there's no change needed for the software to work. It can't be the cost to the ATM owners as all it would require of them is an e-mail. So how can it be that the police can tell us exactly how many people were arrested for cruelty to animals, but not how many people died for their ATM cards?

Joe Zingher

Gurnee