[ryanwaggoner]

Unless the thief takes off with the victims phone as well.

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?

[nodemaker]

You do because for the criminal there is no way to know if you used a duress code or not.So if you cant really get into a better position in the eyes of the criminal by not using it,you might as well use it and get cops to know you are in trouble.

Not to mention that cops will potentially have a live video feed of the crime scene as the crime is being committed!

[jiggy2011]

The problem then is people entering the duress code by accident (if it's similar to the pin) or forgetting it (if it's too different).

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.

[lmm]

If they're part of a gang with a mole in the police they'll know - and who are you to say they aren't?

[pavel_lishin]

Or better yet, what if it's an elaborate CIA plot to convince you that the moon landing was real? Plotted by intelligent elephants, who breathe fire and crap diamonds! They're a part of the deBeers cartel, and when you're asleep, they rearrange your underwear!

How deep do you want to make your conspiracy theory go?

[jiggy2011]

That's always a risk anyway, in the UK we have an anonymous crime reporting phone number. You are never going to know for sure whether someone in their telephony department is somehow logging information from all the calls and handing it over to the mafia etc.

[pavel_lishin]

> 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 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.

[moe]

Do you?

Yup!