Right, I'm not even sure which section this ought to be in, but the idea is that as many of us see it as possible, so here will do for now (maybe it can do a spot of touring
).
As a few of you already know, I am very proud to be on an advisory group with the
UK Network of Sex Work Projects which is developing a model for a new, anonymous, Ugly Mugs and dodgy punters national reporting scheme for all sex workers. The scheme is backed by the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers (both of whom are represented on the advisory group) and various other organisations are expressing encouragement and support. I must emphasise that the people and groups involved are credible, legitimate and above all accountable - there is no question of misuse of the information or people's personal details ending up floating around on the internet; the website and database will be secure and the information contained encrypted, so even in the event of hacking, nothing will be available for misuse.
I am posting on SAAFE at this stage to try and obtain some feedback from everybody on how the proposed bits for indoor workers will be applied - the form for outdoor workers has a few different questions and is really designed to be filled in by a third party so that outreach workers and project staff can report on the behalf of people whose personal circumstances make it difficult for them to do themselves. Anyone who has access to or uses a local project would be welcome to use this too, but since the situation of many independent indoor workers is different and we are often more isolated, the plan is to provide an online form and possibly a telephone number so that we can report into the scheme directly. If any of you would be happy to comment on draft forms when we have them ready let me know, we want lots of comments from sex workers to make sure we get something suitable.
So:Would you be interested in receiving alerts when crimes were reported? To ensure that UKNSWP offers a secure system which is in line with Data Protection law and information sharing regulations, any scheme may have to have some system which requires sex workers to sign up as members. This would also enable us to have some means of contact for you if there were other police investigations relating to the person who committed the offence. UKNSWP would only be able to share with members 'sanitised' alerts, that is, alerts/warnings which are summaries with information to help you identify offenders but with some information (eg. full names, addresses, car registration numbers) removed for reasons of human rights and Data Protection law - this will avoid putting any future court cases at risk.
Would you be comfortable registering your work name and mobile number and/or email address?As well as alerting sex workers to dangerous people, a key aim of a UK wide scheme would be to have better information about crimes committed against us and to identify offenders. UKNSWP would hope to share anonymised reports made into the scheme with national police analysts.
Would you give consent for your anonymous report to be passed onto a national police contact? (By anonymous we mean that none of your details will be passed on to the police).
The eventual outcome will hopefully be that we have a national database containing details of those who target us, so that information can be shared and any patterns emerging can hopefully be spotted early. So, what does everybody think? The next meeting of the group is in mid October, and we really want some feedback from members here - any questions, just ask and if I can't answer I will be sure to check with someone who can. Please as well as responding to these questions do post any other comments you have on this initiative. What do we think?