Mangaluru: For quite long the district police have been explaining to commercial banks how important it was to install CCTV systems on their premises and ATM kiosks.
However, the banks seem to be content to have them within the premises and inside the ATM kiosks. But in case of thefts and robberies, identification and tracing of culprits would be possible if proof of their movements outside the bank premises is available.
For this purpose, district’s superintendent of police Dr Sharanappa S D has instructed that notices be served within a week to all banks to install CCTV systems outside the premises as well. The banks would be given a deadline of a month to fulfil this requirement.
He gave this information at a meeting held in the premises of Syndicate Bank – which is the lead bank for the district – on Monday. He said that the step was being taken to safeguard the customers and to ensure safety within the premises.
Once the CCTVs were installed in the designated time, he said, the quality of the equipment would be inspected by the police officials. In order to strengthen the security aspects, deployment of armed guards also had be considered by banks, he further said.
He added that it had come to the notice of the police that the CCTV equipment installed in most cases were of low quality. Even burglar alarms were not in an operating condition. Such conditions of insecurity would not do justice to the customers. There should be an automated system to alert others in case of fire and customers getting stuck inside the ATM kiosks.
He made it clear that he meant business by cautioning that if, like in the past, the instructions on security were not implemented or followed up, the bank officials and staff concerned would be held responsible for any consequences.
from 2015 archives:
Security in Banks and ATMs Must be Strengthened – SP Dr Sharanappa
