Chicago hotels are now rolling out “panic buttons” for hotel staff to address the threat of workers being “sexually assaulted or harassed by guests,” according to The Chicago Tribune. An ordinance approving the buttons was passed in October, and now the city is pushing to get the devices distributed by a July 1 deadline.
When pressed, the buttons would send a message that “instantaneously goes to the cellphones of supervisors” that would include the “device number, the name of the employee in distress, and room number where she is located.”
Chicago is the second city in the United States, after Seattle, to enact a law requiring hotels to distribute panic buttons, though unionized hotels in New York City have had the requirement in their contracts since 2013, said the Tribune report.
