In February, an assistant district attorney for Santa Clara County in California wrote a memo about her concerns about sexual assaults on ride-sharing services.
According to a memo she sent to her boss, the District Attorney's office only prosecutes one sexual assault case a year.
She estimated that riders in Santa Clara County had reported as many as 60 sexual assaults to the company in the last two years.
Ms. Harman said that the company received a complaint, investigated it, and made a finding. The justice system has been created byUber.
In the months since, Ms. Harman and other local officials, including Sam Liccardo, the mayor of San Jose, have been trying to convince the company to report sexual assaults on a trial basis. Local officials argued that the victims should be in control of when and how to tell their stories.
It's part of a larger fight over how ride-sharing companies handle reports of sexual assault. The number of assaults and harassment incidents reported to the company has been released by both companies. Data about dangerous drivers is being shared by the two companies. Some people think the companies should go even further.
Over the past decade, some sexual assault survivors have sued ride-sharing companies for not protecting their riders. There have been at least 40 lawsuits filed against the company. In August, 13 other people filed lawsuits. The suits have not yet gone to trial.
The names of any witnesses were ordered by the California Public Utilities Commission to be provided by the ride sharing service. The company was fined $60 million by the state. The case was settled for more than nine million dollars.
The Santa Clara district attorney's office and the mayor of San Jose want ride-sharing companies to report all such incidents so that they can be investigated. They think this is essential to public safety. They argue that people who assault a rider in a car may be kicked off the service but that won't stop them from attacking someone else.
In a recent interview with his office in San Jose, Mr. Rosen said that they wanted to let the police investigate the matter. The victim can decide not to speak to the police. We need to tell the victim what their options are.
In December of last year, the company released its first safety transparency report, revealing that it had received over 6000 reports of sexual assault on rides in the previous two years. The California Public Utilities Commission released the number of complaints in the state.
Santa Clara County has 5 percent of the state's population and the district attorney's office estimated that 62 assaults had occurred in the two years. The police only received one incident.
There may be incidents that the district attorney wouldn't prosecute.
In the spring of this year, the district attorney's office met with executives of the ride-sharing service to try to get them to report the incidents to the authorities. It was clear that it wouldn't. The rate of reported sexual assaults decreased by 38 percent over the course of two years, according to a new safety report.
According to the company, sexual assault victims should be in charge of when and how their experiences are reported. Advocacy groups that support sexual assault survivors include the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network and the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
The company said in a statement that it wasn't created in a vacuum. It was guided by the foremost experts on this issue and by survivors themselves, all of whom have repeatedly told us that assuming someone wants the police involved, or pressuring them to do so, risks re-traumatizing them.
The chief executive of the association of rape crisis centers and sexual assault prevention programs sat in on a meeting with the district attorney. She told the district attorney that reports of sexual assault should not be shared.
She said that survivors want to have control over who gets to see their information. The choice should be theirs.
Ms. Henriquez thought that Santa Clara had dropped the matter. She doesn't think that the incidents should be revealed to law enforcement.
After talking with Ms. Henriquez, the district attorney's office still believes that all such incidents should be reported to the authorities. They said they would keep pushing the company to do so.
The concerns of sexual assault victims must be balanced with the need for public safety according to the district attorney. He said victims could still decide whether or not to speak to the police.
Colleges and universities in the area were not easy to convince to report accusations of sexual assault. All of the schools in the county have agreed to do so.
The man said that he was looking for something from the ride hailing service. It is in the interest of the company to be a positive part of society, just like it is in the interest of the church.
Mr. Rosen wants to know if victims are told to contact the police. He said that it was surprising that so few sexual assaults were reported to the county.
Some of the victims will get an email in 2020 with a hotline number and option to report to law enforcement.
It's up to you if you want to report to law enforcement. If you decide to report this to the police, you should provide them with our online portal address. It is not necessary for you to report to law enforcement in order to call the hotline.
At a meeting with the company at the end of September, Mayor Liccardo said that the company should explain to victims that they don't have to report sexual assault incidents to the police if they don't want to.
He said, "It is astounding that we hear arguments from these companies couched in the language of protecting the agency and autonomy of sexual assault survivors, when in fact they are not giving information to survivors that explains how they can take action to ensure attackers are arrested and prosecuted."
Mr. Liccardo, a former criminal prosecutor, is looking into creating a city law that would require ride-sharing companies to report all incidents themselves. He said he was going to send a memo to the San Jose City Council this week.
The company says it won't give personal information to the authorities. Under the terms of the settlement with the California Public Utilities Commission, victims of sexual assault and harassment will be kept anonymous and more information will be given to them if they choose to.
A trial agreement is what the district attorney hopes for. He said that they are big on trials and pilots. I want to see how it works.
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