NEW YORK CITY -- By 2013, the Big Apple's ATM operators were in crisis. According to industry sources, an estimated four to five automated teller machines fell victim to robberies once a week. That number would often jump to multiple robberies a day. As overall crime decreased to record lows in New York City, robberies of ATMs were incongruously soaring to new heights. Even for the city that never sleeps, this was a profoundly distressing pattern.

Jim Shrayef of Everything ATM (Brooklyn, NY) told Vending Times that the robberies took various forms. These included simply removing a freestanding ATM, using a handtruck, from a location during business hours, to well-coordinated efforts that saw machines yanked out of locations with a chain or rope. In several instances, the criminals attacked closed stores, breaking in with the specific purpose of robbing the ATM. Most disturbing, he said, were robberies of route personnel filling machines. Aside from the robberies, there was also a fair amount of vandalism taking place.

Shrayef operates equipment through Everything ATM, which also provides consulting services and support material to those entering the cash machine field. He found the stealing and crime situation particularly alarming. "These were not random attacks, and this was not stealing lunch money," he said. "They were specialized criminals who saw ATMs as easy targets."

Local police were initially less than responsive in the face of the crime wave, often only taking a report without a follow-up investigation. Sometimes suspicion would fall on the ATM operator or location owner. Part of the problem was the age-old view among law enforcement and the general public that ATM robberies, like those of vending machines, were so-called "victimless crimes." As such, they were given low priority status.

The solution came when Shrayef began organizing independent operators to address the problem. Forming the Northeast Regional ATM Association, which unified ATM deployers from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The concept behind the new association was not only to create a means of sharing information, but also to offer a way to lobby locally.

A first step for the new association was to educate ATM operators in best practices when it came to safety and security. This begins with identifying suspicious behavior and obtaining details of a robbery. The regional organization, which works osely with the much larger National ATM Council, also began lobbying the New York Police Department, eventually landing meetings with community affairs officers

Calling All Cars

Shrayef recalled that the initial meetings with the New York Police Department were often less than pleasant. "We thought it was going to be just a formality," he said. "And some of the operators made angry comments to the officers. However, our complaints worked their way up to Police Commissioner William Bratton, and he lent an ear. He actually sent people out to do some fact finding."

Bratton's investigation discovered what equipment owners and operators had long suspected: ATM robberies were not random. Neither were they "inside jobs" committed by operators or storeowners. They were the work of organized criminal gangs operating throughout New York City's five boroughs.

"Commissioner Bratton took the time to hear what we had to say," Shrayef said. "And he understood how dangerous it was. He understood how our industry is necessary to neighborhoods underserved by banks." In many New York neighborhoods, an ATM that goes out of service at the local grocery store can prove disruptive for the storeowner and the community at large. The ATM crime spree represented a quality of life issue.

A police taskforce was formed that soon led to arrests. Robbery incidents of ATMs began to drop quickly once the NYPD took action and allocated resources to the problem. "After some arrests were made, it was clear these were gangs that had knowledge of the industry," Shrayef explained. "The criminals also realized the police were on to them, and they were taking a major risk by robbing ATMs. Within a year, there was a marked drop from the height of 2013, and within two years a major improvement."

Present incidents of ATM robberies, as Shrayef reported, have dropped dramatically from the 2013 highs of several a week to one or two a month throughout the city. "Some months have been completely robbery free," he added.

While Bratton may have left office in 2016, his successor, Commissioner James O'Neill, has kept up the proactive approach that has seen ATM robberies drop to new low levels that reflect the city's historic low crime rate. And all it took was a group of dedicated operators who wanted their voices heard.

TEAMWORK CONTINUES: George Sarantopoulos (l.), chairman of the National ATM Council, Jim Shrayef (second from l.), president of the Northeast Regional ATM Association, and Danny Frank (r.), NRATMA's executive director, meet with NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill, who succeeded Bill Bratton last year.

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Operators Join Forces With Law Enforcement, Driving Down ATM Crimes In New York City - Vending Times