bill@gauss.eedsp.gatech.edu (bill) (03/23/91)
Caller ID plan draws opposition from rape counseling centers
By DAN SHOMON Jr.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (UPI) -- Several representatives of rape and
domestic violence counseling centers spoke out Tuesday against a
proposed telephone feature that allows people to see the phone number
of who is calling them.
The plan, which has been dubbed Caller ID, has already been
implemented in New Jersey and other states.
The Illinois Commerce Commission is expected to make a decision
whether to allow Illinois Bell and Centel to begin the service to its
phone customers in Illinois.
Beth Savage-Martin, coordinator of hotline volunteers at
Springfield's Rape Information and Counseling Service, told a special
public hearing that the plan would keep rape victims from calling for
help because they would fear someone would get their number.
"This could be the last straw that breaks the camel's back,"
Savage-Martin said. "Anything that deters the victims from calling us
is not a positive thing."
Caller ID has been touted as a way to protect people because it
would display the phone number of an abusive caller but Savage-Martin
said she thinks criminals would probably use pay-phones and take away
any advantage of the device.
More opposition came from Mary Pat Browne, who oversees sexual
assault counseling services at the YWCA in Sterling.
"Caller ID will jeopardize our efforts to provide confidential,
safe services for victims," Browne said.
Both Brown and Savage-Martin said they would probably lose
volunteers when Caller ID goes into effect because those people would
be worried about their phone numbers getting out to victims and
perpetrators.
However, Illinois Bell said it would avoid such problems by giving
out telephone calling cards to rape hotline and crisis counseling
employees.
Besides helping the at least 65,000 people in the state who
received harassing calls in 1990, Bell spokesman Laura Littel said
Caller ID could also reduce the growing number of false fire alarms
and bomb threats.
At the hearing, two forms of the Caller ID program were discussed.
Bell's plan would not allow someone to "block" someone else from
seeing their own telephone number, even though that is something that
rape counseling services would support.
However, Des Plaines-based Central Telephone Company of Illinois
wants to implement a Caller ID program that includes "blocking." The
company would provide blocking for all of its residential and single-
line business customers at no charge.
Even though there were several groups in opposition, at least two
women testified that Caller ID would help end harassment they have
faced.
Linda Butler of Springfield said she had a serious problem with
phone harassment in 1987 and was forced to pay the phone company more
than $300 to trace calls and also spent more than $300 on a phone
answering device in an attempt to catch the culprit.
The Caller ID program would probably cost most people less than $10
per month and Butler said she favored it because "many consumers are
not in the same position as I am that I can spend that kind of money
to have my calls traced."
Freda Schrenk of Riverton echoed Butler's concerns. "The people
that make these calls don't care who they're spouting their filth at,"
Schrenk said.
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Bill Berbenich Georgia Tech, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp: ...!{backbones}!gatech!eedsp!bill Internet: bill@eedsp.gatech.edu
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