When the Metropolitan Police, Hammersmith approached the Design Against Crime Research Centre (DACRC) at the University of Arts London in 2010, for help in dealing with pickpockets, the DACRC team looked sideways from traditional security solutions and proposed a collaboration with artist Steve Russell to help find new and creative ways of influencing behaviour around ATMs.
Police at Hammersmith were experiencing problems with pickpockets and bag thieves. PC Paul Trueman consulted DACRC because Professor Lorraine Gamman, who directs the Centre, had worked closely with businesses as well as crime prevention and creative professionals. When she learned about the nature of the crimes in Hammersmith, she suggested it might be worth trialling a version of the cashpoint safety zones with which a Manchester 2007 police pilot had had success, but bringing a more aesthetic sensibility to the idea.
The Greater Manchester Police research from 2007 reported that one in four street crime offences (personal robbery and snatch theft) were geographically connected to a cashpoint and that on introducing yellow privacy or ‘safety zone’ boxes on pavements around ATMs offences could be reduced by 66% within 150m of the ATM.
Problem
Cashpoints or ATMs have been in use on the streets of the world for over forty years. Their design has evolved to ensure that they work for the convenience and benefit of users and to make sure machines are highly resistant to physical attack from criminals. There has been some work towards linking machines to CCTV protection and a great deal of focus on developing original encryption software and hardware to ensure transactions can be verified and avoid abuse. Biometric cashpoint dispensers look set to represent the next stage of the ATM’s technological evolution.
But for all this increasing sophistication, there has been little design address to how the ‘context of use’ affects the ordinary user experience. There has been some research that looks at environment in order to deter violent crimes like ram-raiding or Payment Card Data compromise crimes such as ‘skimming’, but what repeatedly gets overlooked is the simple, but ever present danger to users on the pavement nearby the ATM from pickpocketting, distraction theft and ‘shoulder surfing’ in which thieves can watch PINs being entered in preparation for later theft and use of cards.
Cashpoint safety zones created using painted lines (yellow or white boxes) have, over recent years, been implemented in many towns and cities in the UK on police advice. The idea is to create a safe zone around the cashpoint user that others should not enter. They allow the cashpoint user to feel safe and able to say something if the boundary markers are infringed. However, the approach has problems. The instructive direction of the yellow or white lines is over-stated for many environments and does not complement the user- friendly image many banks strive to create. Also at a functional level, the distance marked out for pedestrians to stand back from cashpoint users varies. At times, the lines are not painted to enclose a space large enough to reduce opportunities for thieves to shoulder surf.
Some businesses tend to view police warnings as bad for business, sending the wrong message to customers about the safety of the premises or the geographic location of the business, by association. Police warning signs on the street conveying the need to take precautions against pickpockets may simply make passers-by afraid. As PC Truman observed: ‘When starting the initiative, I was aware that raising awareness amongst the public could sometimes be seen in a negative way within the local business community, almost like attaching crime to the locality. What we wanted to achieve were designs which would be seen as positive, innovative and which would create a talking point.’
Despite the success reported by a Manchester study on safety zones in 2007, when Hammersmith Metropolitan Police approached high-street banks to adopt the strategy in 2010, there was little interest. This may be because banks and other businesses do not want to be associated with crime, which the yellow boxes implicitly represent, albeit as a deterrent. They may work, but they have little aesthetic appeal, their visual language being more commonly associated with enforcement of street transit activities. This is a case of ‘involvement failure’ precipitated by poor aesthetic design awareness.
Solution
Cashpoint art rather than simple painted lines was proposed for Hammersmith. Art symbolically avoids treating people like road traffic and provides aesthetic environmental appeal, while still promising to deter shoulder surfing and/or distractions by pickpockets. Additionally, the proposed cashpoint art zones were larger than most linear-painted safety zones, further denying opportunities for shoulder surfing.
Cashpoint artworks by Steve Russell aimed to offer the benefits of cashpoint safety zones using a more appealing aesthetic strategy. They were reproduced on vinyl and literally stuck to the floor to create safety zones that can engage and even amuse or delight the public, while simultaneously effecting increased space for the cashpoint user. They are designed to be refreshed every three months, although DACRC have undertaken research into more durable materials that could give the installations greater longevity, depending on the context of use, foot-fall, external or internal applications, etc.
Steve Russell observes: ‘My paintings were created as a gentle and enjoyable reminder to ATM users to be aware of each other’s space when using, and waiting to use the machines. The use of art is a positive move away from the strictures of yellow warning lines and “you must not do this” graphics.’
Six Cashpoint Art Safety Zones were installed in October 2010 in external and internal venues in Hammersmith, in partnership with The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBSG). Locations included National Westminster Bank and the Broadway shopping centre. These were subsequently monitored by the Metropolitan Police until January 2011. Police reports from Hammersmith indicate considerable success in reducing ATM crime and RBSG are now in discussion with DACRC about how to take this idea forward in wider London and national contexts.