OSC Guardian - Safety Advice

OSC GUARDIAN - SAFETY ADVICE
www.OramSecurity.com

Friday, June 3, 2011

NYC Hotel to Buy 'Panic Buttons' for Housekeepers


Associated Press (06/01/11)

New York City's Pierre Hotel is promising to purchase "panic buttons" for its staff and begin sexual harassment training for all employees following the alleged sexual assault of a housekeeper on May 29. According to authorities, Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar, a businessman and the former chairman of a large Egyptian bank, locked the housekeeper in a room at the hotel and sexually assaulted her. Omar has denied the charges against him. As a result of the alleged attack, housekeepers at The Pierre Hotel will now be given wireless devices to alert hotel management if they are assaulted. New York City's Sofitel Hotel, which was the scene of last month's alleged sexual assault of a housekeeper by former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has also promised to issue the devices to its housekeepers. In addition, the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council has said that it will push for the devices in its contract negotiations with 150 hotels in 2012. However, hotel security expert Anthony Roman said that panic buttons are not a panacea and that they come with their own set of complications. Roman said the devices must be small and inconspicuous so the attacker cannot remove them easily. They must also have a locating feature that works indoors so that security can find an employee in distress.

1 comment:

  1. I am impressed how quickly the Hotels have moved in attempting to provide a solution, yet at the same time this is not the first time this type of assault has occurred. Providing panic buttons for staff that are alone in rooms should have been addressed in the past.

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