Panel delays payday store security ordinance

June 28 -- An ordinance that would require "convenient cash" businesses to install security cameras and remove signs from doors and windows was held in a Common Council committee last week after industry representatives said they were not consulted when the measure was drafted and objected to some of the requirements.

Ald. Joe Davis, who introduced the proposal, said in a resolution that convenient cash businesses -- currency exchanges, title loan agencies and payday loan shops -- have been the sites "of several violent crimes in the city of Milwaukee, including two incidents in November, 2003, that left one person dead and two others wounded."

He also said the businesses require customers to disclose personal and financial information in areas where other customers can overhear, "thereby putting the privacy and safety of customers at risk."

The Public Safety Committee voted to hold the matter for a month after aldermen said some of the proposed requirements were stricter than those imposed on banks.

Representatives of affected businesses objected to several of the proposed requirements, especially the prohibition on any signs on doors or windows.

The proposed ordinance, which has the backing of the Police Department, also would require the "convenient cash" businesses to:

--Provide lighting for the parking area during all hours of darkness when employees or customers are present.

--Maintain a safe on the premises.

--Install and maintain at least two security cameras that would run during business hours.

--Have customer entrance and exit doors that are made of glass or other transpartent material.

--Locate the service counter and register so that the employee and customer are both visible from the sidewalk outside the establishment, provided the location arrangement can be made without incurring additional costs.

--Install an alarm system along the outside of the building and panic alarms behind the customer service counter.

--Have at least two employees on duty 15 minutes before to 15 minutes after the business opens and 15 minutes before to 15 minutes after the business closes.

--Have all deliveries of cash to and pick-ups of cash from the business done by an armored car service.

--Maintain on the premises a list of the names, home addresses and home telephone numbers of current employees of the business.

--Send employees to a training course in robbery prevention.