Hold-ups alarm French security guards

By Douglas Herbert, CNN.com Europe writer

LONDON, England (CNN) - Calls to step up security at French cash machines are intensifying amid a spate of deadly attacks on the armoured car guards who refill the machines.

Sixteen security guards have been killed in on-the-job hold-ups across France over the past five years, including five fatalities in the past year alone.

Last month, the government issued a decree aimed at tightening security around cash distribution points by the end of 2002.

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But security guards and their unions are appealing for tougher and faster action to prevent what one union member called "the slaughter."

In the latest attack, a 40-year-old Brink's security guard died after being shot in the head on Wednesday while loading a cash machine in a hospital in Villejuif, on the outskirts of Paris.

Some of the guards have threatened to stop doing their jobs unless they are given better protections against armed bandits who they say have become more brazen in their attacks, which often occur in daylight, in crowded public places.

Many guards fear they will become even riper targets for attack as cash-distribution activity picks up when Europe's single currency, the euro, replaces the French franc on January 1, 2002.

"These gangs are ready to shoot at you in any situation," said Roger Poletti, secretary general of the Force Ouvrière transport union, one of several unions that participated in a government-hosted round table on the violence against security guards this week.

"The guards" who are often caught in large crowds in public places, "normally have very little chance of retaliating," Poletti said.

Wednesday's killing came a week after gangsters ambushed two armoured vans in a suburb of Paris, blasting open the side of one of the vans and making off with 30 million francs ($4.26 million).

Three guards, slightly hurt in the blast, probably owe their lives to the heavy armour plating separating them from their cargo of cash.

Police later apprehended six men, recovering most of the stolen loot. They also uncovered a cache of weapons that included a rocket launcher, sub-machine guns and assault rifles.

Wednesday's attack prompted Brinks workers to walk off the job on Thursday.

The action raised the spectre of another cash shortage similar to one that paralysed large swathes of the country last May. Then, teller machines ran dry after the nation's security guards staged a two-week strike to push for better security measures.

They only returned to work after the government promised better protections -- among them a plan to install video surveillance cameras at cash machines by 2002.

Banks and supermarkets, under current plans, have been given two years to improve security at their cash machines.

The government has tried to head off more debilitating strikes by dispatching its interior and transport ministers to a round-table session on Thursday also attended by security guard unions and security firms.

The government said it would consider shutting down high-risk cash points pending the introduction of tighter security.

Earlier, in a decree issued in mid-December, before the latest killing, the government outlined a series of measures for beefing up security at cash points.

Guards say Wednesday's killing underlines the urgency of the risks facing them -- especially at "black points", or high-risk, cash locations.

Force Ouvrière estimates there are anywhere from 4,500 to 5,000 black points in France, most in airports, train stations, metros, commercial centres and hospitals where the combination of large crowds and open spaces make guards extra vulnerable.

Security firms have called for an amendment to government regulations beefing up security at 200 to 300 high-risk cash points in France.

They would like to see security tightened at up to 70,000 cash points -- the total number serviced by their security guards in France -- a demand that the banks who own many of the cash machines say is too costly.

Eric Ehrsam, a spokesman for security firm Brink's in France, which employs 2,000 of the country's 5,000 security guards, said it is unrealistic to tighten security at all 70,000 machines in the next two years.

Rather, he wants to see security tightened at the 500 to 1,000 truly high-risk points, those where "a security guard must leave his vehicle and walk more than a reasonable distance" in a public area to the cash machine.

In the meantime, he said, Brinks is training security guards to better handle stressful situations and anticipate danger.

French Ministry of Transport
French Ministry of the Interior
Force Ouvrière
French Democratic Labour Confederation (CFDT)
Brink's

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