Zone Z3
ATM & Vestibule
Open when the branch is not. Most of your customer-facing incidents happen here.
The exposure is your customer, not your cash
The machine is hard to attack and the customer standing at it is not. Robbery, distraction theft and card-trapping all target the person rather than the device, and they happen after dark.
Lighting is the cheapest control available
Most vestibules we survey are under-lit at the approach rather than inside. Fixing the approach lighting typically costs less than a fortnight of officer hours and works every night thereafter.
Card access to the vestibule
Requiring a card to enter after hours removes loitering almost entirely. It also strands the occasional legitimate customer, so it needs a considered fallback rather than a blanket switch-on.
Skimming is a physical inspection
Where officers cover a branch, a documented inspection of the fascia, card slot and keypad at shift start and shift end takes two minutes and has caught devices that remote monitoring did not.
Patrol beats a post here
Standing an officer in a vestibule all night is rarely proportionate. Randomised patrol visits across several branches usually delivers more deterrent value per dollar, and we will recommend that where it applies.