Demand of the interior ministers: ATMs should be better protected

Status: 27.11.2022 09:31 a.m

Bombings of ATMs have increased massively – last year alone 800 devices were destroyed. Now the conference of interior ministers would like to oblige banks to better protect their machines.

According to the will of the Conference of Interior Ministers (IMK), operators of ATMs should in future be obliged to protect their cash holdings from being blown up. According to Bavaria’s Minister of the Interior, Joachim Herrmann, the pressure on international groups of criminals is to be increased.

The CSU politician is currently chairman of the conference of interior ministers. “The number of ATM blasts has skyrocketed this year,” emphasized Herrmann, with a view to the upcoming IMK autumn conference in Munich next week.

New high

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, around 800 ATMs were blown up across Germany in 2020 and 2021. These are the highest number of cases that have been registered since the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) began collecting statistics in 2005.

The preliminary number of cases available for the first half of 2022 led us to expect a new high for the year. “We have to take this development very seriously. The highly professional criminal gangs not only cause great economic damage,” emphasized Herrmann.

danger to residents

It is also particularly problematic that the blasting is accompanied by a reckless endangerment of uninvolved third parties, residents and emergency services.

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the current development in Germany is being accelerated by a displacement effect from the Netherlands. Extensive preventive measures against such explosions have already been implemented there. Almost two thirds of the suspects registered by the BKA in 2020 and 2021 come from the Netherlands.

Make banknotes unusable when blown up

Close cooperation between investigators, both nationwide and with our European neighbors, is important for a trend reversal in this country, too, says Herrmann.

“In addition, it will also be about increased prevention. For example, the installation sites and the machines themselves must be better secured,” emphasized the CSU politician. The banks and vending machine manufacturers are responsible for making it as difficult as possible for the criminals, including with technical devices that make banknotes unusable if the devices are destroyed. Then it’s no longer worth blasting.

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