EYE Mag has a good story on security measures taken by some sex workers. It's at:
http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_12.18.03/city/sexworkers.html
HERE IS AN EXCERPT:
In the wake of the recent violence, many sex workers are trying to build such a net, much the same way the taxicab industry, following the murders of of two cab drivers in 2000, adopted security cameras and external emergency lights to protect drivers. Of course, both programs in the cab business are now required by the city's licensing agency. No such body exists for the sex industry, so the initiatives are of necessity ad-hoc and scattered.
Shortly after Do's murder, and again after Pham's, industry bulletin boards such as the Toronto Escort Review Board (see sidebar below for more info) were flooded with sex workers and clients mapping out strategies for protection: retired prostitutes offered to telephone and check up on those working outcalls (where a prostitute visits a client's home or hotel room), or even to sit in the next room during incalls (in which clients visit a prostitute's home). Others began organizing self-defence classes, with regular clients volunteering instruction and space.
Sex worker Shemale Dee was one of those who felt the need to act to protect herself and others. "I was a good friend of Cassandra's. We had known her for about 13 years and basically because of what has happened just recently, and having always been concerned with safety myself, I approached some software, security and systems people," she says. "I told them about the business we are in and how we do business and everything else, and wanted to do some brainstorming with them about the most ideal, easiest-to-use, easiest-to-implement system that would offer the biggest stick, the most amount of security."
What Dee and those computer people came up with is a system they call Capture and Send, which uses a camera that fits into the peephole on the door to an apartment to take a picture of clients before they come into the apartment and sends it to the owner's computer and to remote locations (friends' computers or a central image-vault service) as an encrypted file for storage. The files are stored off-site so that clients who may get out of line cannot just steal a computer to destroy the evidence; they're encrypted with a code so that only the sex worker and whomever she gives it to (a lawyer, a family member) can access the photographs. If nothing goes wrong, clients should have no serious concerns about the future of the image because it is, after all, just a picture of them standing in a hallway.
"So there's a lot of thought in the process. When I go to the door, let's say for example, buddy comes to the door and I want to let him in. I've sent the images to a dozen friends and on my door I have a little warning saying 'premises under surveillance.' So they know ahead of time what they're dealing with. And when I go to the door, I crack open the door -- I still have a steel bar that doesn't allow anyone to push their way past me -- so I'm still within my safe territory, and if they say 'Hey, I have a problem with the whole security issue,' then I say 'I'm sorry I can't do business with you.' And that's still from the safe side of the door. If I decide to let them in, and he decides to get a little testy and out of line, I'm able to tell him 'Hey, you've been warned at the door, and you can see that a security system is in effect and your picture has been sent to a dozen of my friends before you even came in here. So I suggest you leave' -- 99.9 per cent of the people in that situation would likely leave. I'm convinced that if Cassandra had had this system and she had said that to her attacker, he would have probably left."
Dee has been operating the system in her own home for a month, and says it's working well and that none of her clients has complained about it. She's marketing it to others in the business for $1,000.
http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_12.18.03/city/sexworkers.html
HERE IS AN EXCERPT:
In the wake of the recent violence, many sex workers are trying to build such a net, much the same way the taxicab industry, following the murders of of two cab drivers in 2000, adopted security cameras and external emergency lights to protect drivers. Of course, both programs in the cab business are now required by the city's licensing agency. No such body exists for the sex industry, so the initiatives are of necessity ad-hoc and scattered.
Shortly after Do's murder, and again after Pham's, industry bulletin boards such as the Toronto Escort Review Board (see sidebar below for more info) were flooded with sex workers and clients mapping out strategies for protection: retired prostitutes offered to telephone and check up on those working outcalls (where a prostitute visits a client's home or hotel room), or even to sit in the next room during incalls (in which clients visit a prostitute's home). Others began organizing self-defence classes, with regular clients volunteering instruction and space.
Sex worker Shemale Dee was one of those who felt the need to act to protect herself and others. "I was a good friend of Cassandra's. We had known her for about 13 years and basically because of what has happened just recently, and having always been concerned with safety myself, I approached some software, security and systems people," she says. "I told them about the business we are in and how we do business and everything else, and wanted to do some brainstorming with them about the most ideal, easiest-to-use, easiest-to-implement system that would offer the biggest stick, the most amount of security."
What Dee and those computer people came up with is a system they call Capture and Send, which uses a camera that fits into the peephole on the door to an apartment to take a picture of clients before they come into the apartment and sends it to the owner's computer and to remote locations (friends' computers or a central image-vault service) as an encrypted file for storage. The files are stored off-site so that clients who may get out of line cannot just steal a computer to destroy the evidence; they're encrypted with a code so that only the sex worker and whomever she gives it to (a lawyer, a family member) can access the photographs. If nothing goes wrong, clients should have no serious concerns about the future of the image because it is, after all, just a picture of them standing in a hallway.
"So there's a lot of thought in the process. When I go to the door, let's say for example, buddy comes to the door and I want to let him in. I've sent the images to a dozen friends and on my door I have a little warning saying 'premises under surveillance.' So they know ahead of time what they're dealing with. And when I go to the door, I crack open the door -- I still have a steel bar that doesn't allow anyone to push their way past me -- so I'm still within my safe territory, and if they say 'Hey, I have a problem with the whole security issue,' then I say 'I'm sorry I can't do business with you.' And that's still from the safe side of the door. If I decide to let them in, and he decides to get a little testy and out of line, I'm able to tell him 'Hey, you've been warned at the door, and you can see that a security system is in effect and your picture has been sent to a dozen of my friends before you even came in here. So I suggest you leave' -- 99.9 per cent of the people in that situation would likely leave. I'm convinced that if Cassandra had had this system and she had said that to her attacker, he would have probably left."
Dee has been operating the system in her own home for a month, and says it's working well and that none of her clients has complained about it. She's marketing it to others in the business for $1,000.
