Unless the thief takes off with the victims phone as well. Additionally there are sadly instances where the theft at the ATM is just the start of other crimes towards the victim.
I was thinking of the best case scenario. So the robber takes the phone as well, and the person calls it in 15 minutes later when they get to a phone. When the average police response time is about ten minutes, the difference between a call being placed 30 seconds after the robbery and 15 minutes after is pretty much nil.
Additionally there are sadly instances where the theft at the ATM is just the start of other crimes towards the victim.
True. So maybe the advantage here is that the police are alerted to the fact that a crime is taking place. But let's say the victim is kidnapped or something at this point. Are the police going to be able to do anything? They'll show up 5-15 mins after the emergency call and find an empty parking lot. What then?
I guess this might be helpful for situations in which the robber takes the money but then hangs around the ATM to beat or rape the victim. But I doubt this is terribly common. And as soon as it becomes commonplace for people to have duress codes, they'll start taking the victim elsewhere instead of staying near the ATM. Or they'll just kick the shit out of the victim to impress upon them the foolishness of using such a code.
Actually, that's an interesting thought experiment. You're held up at gunpoint (or knifepoint) at an ATM. You have a duress code (that you remember). The criminal knows these are common and threatens you not to use it. Do you?
Not to mention that cops will potentially have a live video feed of the crime scene as the crime is being committed!
Also a criminal might see somebody fumbling with the keypad slower than usual and assume they are entering a duress code.
I generally enter my PIN very quickly , because the movements of my fingers on the keypad is stored in muscle memory.
They'll know that I was in distress RIGHT NOW, instead of two hours later when I fail to show up for that party I told my fiance I'd meet her at - and even then, she would have to wait 22 hours before filing an official police report.
The possibility of kidnapping elevates this to a whole new level.
Yup!
