Houston
…We have a problem…….
In New York City that is. It seems that a "papers in order mentality" has reached such a fevered pitch in New York City that it is now unacceptable to stay at a hotel unless you carry and present "identity papers with photos" and let the hotel copy and retain these papers for their internal files. And you had better comply, according to New Yorker Ramada Hotel General Manager Barry Mann, "Otherwise, the next knock on the door will be the police terrorism squad" [Listen to the audio file at <http://www.privacyactivism.org/images/New
Yorker_Ramada_Hotel_Threat_4APR032.rm>].
Read Dan Gillmor's coverage of this story at http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/000918.shtml#000918
.
March 2003: Invited to attend the ACM-sponsored
Computers, Freedom, and Privacy 2003 (CFP 2003) conference, I
made a credit card reservation at the conference's location, The New Yorker
Ramada Hotel, owned by The Reverend Sun Young Moon.
2 April 2003: Traveling by AMTRAK from DC to NYC to avoid
having to carry photo ID (I bought my ticket using a credit card at an AMTRAK
Ticket Kiosk), I arrived at 11:30
PM on 2 April 2003. I
walked across from Penn Station to the hotel, stated my name at the front desk,
identified myself as a CFP conference participant, presented my signed credit
card, and asked to see a copy of the conference agenda for the following
morning. My luggage was minimal - small backpack and small bag on
wheels.
Much to my amazement, the hotel
staff immediately refused to allow me to stay at the hotel unless I presented
"Photo ID." Hotel staff manger Dohee stated that "Your
reservation means nothing without photo ID." After making several
phone calls to various persons, she then stated that no hotel in
New York City
will allow anyone to stay at their hotel without
photo-ID. Ms. Dohee refused to accept my signed credit card used to make
the reservation, even when backed up by my Ramada Club Card.
After much arguing and negotiating,
I emphasized to Ms. Dohee that even many government ID credentials do not have
photos. Ms. Dohee cautiously advised that she would accept a driver's
license without a photo from New
Jersey. Exasperated, I
pulled out my government issued voter registration card and demanded to be
boarded at the hotel as per the reservation contract which I reminded her did
not advise me that I must present photo ID, nor could it anyway under their
credit card agreements (see http://www.mastercard.com/cgi-bin/contactus.cgi?template=ContactUsMV&rgn=1;
http://www.in.gov/dfi/consumer/pdfs/id.pdf).
It took Ms. Dohee several minutes of
agonizing inspection of my three non-photo IDs (Credit Card, Voter Card, and
Ramada Club Card) before she went to another room to copy my identity papers -
she looked like she was under tremendous stress, and maybe thought that I was
doing something illegal.
After an hour of hassle, I got my
key, hit a small late night pizza parlor around the corner (and not a bad NY
slice of pie, I must add!), and I went to sleep.
3 April 2003: Waking up without incident on Thursday, 3 APR
03, I began attending the conference. But then the harassment started.
During a break in the conference at about lunch time, I went to my room
and found a handwritten note placed on my pillow (kind of weird?) on hotel
stationery stating:
4/3/03
Mr. Stollenwerk:
Please contact me by 5:30 PM.
I am very interested in speaking to you.
Please call Ext. 5107 - They will find me.
Thanks
Doug Velotta
Director of Security
I called Mr. Velotta right back and
upon reaching his voice mail, left a message stating that I was "on a
break" and would try to get a hold of him later.
Feeling that Mr. Velotta's need to
see me was quite possibly not related to "comping" me for a night's
stay in light of the delay in obtaining my lodging, I called Ramada Corporation
to complain about two issues: first, the demand for photo-ID, and second,
the copying of all IDs presented by all persons.
Initially, the Ramada corporation
representative laughed at me, saying "things have changed."
When I demanded to speak to her supervisor, she patched me through to an
intelligent life form (Mike) who, after I advised him that I was attending an
ACLU sponsored conference at a Ramada Hotel, took my complaint seriously and
promised to obtain resolution by mail to my home address within 7 days.
Returning to the hotel after dinner,
I personally witnessed a hotel guard demanding to see the room key of one CFP
participant out of our group of conference participants walking to the
elevators to return to our rooms. Another person in our group pleasantly
asked "do you need to see my room key too?" And the guard responded, "no,
just his," pointing to the man in question, who was wearing business style
attire, had Mediterranean facial features, and was prominently displaying his
CFP conference name tag which stated his Arabic looking name.
Not returning to my room until late
in the evening, I missed Mr. Velotta's voice mail urging me to contact him by 5:30 PM. Since 5:30 PM had long since passed, I went to sleep.
4 April 2003: After attending some morning meetings, I took
a break and stopped by the hotel security desk to track down Mr. Velotta. He
was standing there, and motioned me to come around the corner out of sight of
everyone. He quietly stated that "nobody has ever complained about
showing ID before" and that "had any other manager been on duty"
when you arrived, that you would not have been allowed to stay. I
quietly explained why his hotel's policies were misguided:
-
No duty for Americans to have
or carry IDs (upheld in court since the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks
in Carey v. Nevada Gaming Control Board, (2002) - 9th
Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, referencing their previous decision in Lawson
v. Kolender, 658 F.2d 1362 (9th Cir. 1981) [which was upheld by the
Supreme Court in Kolender v. Lawson, 461 U.S. 352, 361-62
(1983)], explained that government demands that US persons identify themselves
to government agents violate the Fourth Amendment because "as a result of
the demand for identification, the statutes bootstrap the authority to arrest
on less than probable cause, and [because] the serious intrusion on personal
security outweighs the mere possibility that identification might provide a
link leading to arrest").
- Photo IDs can be bought in the street easily.
- Only paying guests were
required to present IDs - not other overnight guests, visitors, etc.
- Not a "standard" business
practice at American hotels, yet (http://www.hotelinteractive.com/news/articleView.asp?articleID=1814).
- No photo ID requirement
disclosed in the reservation process.
- US Supreme Court Affirmed
Opt-Out right for Photographs in Driver's Licenses (Jensen v. Quaring,
472 U.S. 478 (1985)).
- Credit Card agreement
prohibitions on asking to see additional ID (http://www.mastercard.com/cgi-bin/contactus.cgi?template=ContactUsMV&rgn=1;
http://www.in.gov/dfi/consumer/pdfs/id.pdf.
- Possibly illegal under
New York
state law to copy IDs in credit card transactions (http://www.gofso.com/Premium/LE/06_le_ic/fg/fg-merchants.html).
- That his ID copy file
presented an ID theft liability to his company and to consumers because ID
theft is mainly an inside job, just like shoplifting ("Identity Theft More
Often an Inside Job: Old Precautions Less Likely to Avert Costly Crime, Experts
Say," The Washington Post, 3 December 2002, Page A1).
Note: many driver's licenses, and all military IDs display both the
subject's date of birth and Social Security Number ("SSN") on the
same document; given easy clerk access to the address and home phone number of
the guest in the reservation system, the hotel is extracting a de facto power
of attorney over that person's identity as a pre-condition to rent a room.
I asked him how long the hotel keeps
copies of IDs - he said "Billing keeps them for about 30 days."
When I told him that Ms. Dohee promised that the copies of my identity
papers would be returned at checkout, he exclaimed in slight alarm, "She
did?"
I strongly encouraged Mr. Velotta to
re-think entirely their hotel security procedures so as to emphasize
"real" security with his management and then asked who the owner of
the hotel was. Mr. Vellotta sheepishly stated: "The Reverend
Sun Young Moon." At this point, Mr. Velotta stated that he had
already received my "complaint fax" from Ramada Corporation and that
he knew I was attending a conference "with lawyers." He slowly
began walking away from me, indicating that he was no longer interested in
continuing the conversation. I returned to the conference.
At the next session, a woman speaker
advised everyone that when she
objected to showing an ID to the hotel at check-in on
the night of 3 April 2003, the hotel staff advised her that it was required and
that the hotel had just called the police to apprehend a guest who had called
the hotel prior to arriving that he would not present photo ID when he arrived.
According to this CFP speaker, the hotel staff indicated that the police
had then apprehended the miscreant guest after he had already checked in and
that they had removed him from the hotel. Dozens of CFP participants that
I spoke to stated that they also objected to the ID policy to hotel staff at
check-in.
At the end of this session, I returned to my room at 6PM
to get ready to go to dinner. I played my
voice mail, which stated:
"This is Barry Mann, General
Manager of the hotel, Mr. Stollenwerk. Ahhh, it's a little after 9 in the
morning. I'd like you to come down and present some picture ID.
Otherwise, the next knock on the door will be the police terrorism squad.
Thank you."
Very startled, I went to my door and
locked the safety latch. I then played the message over 3 times - it
finally dawned on me that the message was left for me much earlier in the day.
I purchased a tape recorder and after 4 other conference participants
listened to the message on my room phone voice mail, I taped it in their
presence. One witness was a California attorney.
Witnesses noticed that my face was noticeably "red."
5 April 2003: When I went to check out at 8:04 AM, clerk Angel Palaquibay
adamantly refused to return the copies of my identity papers stating that the
hotel will not be "paid for 30 days." Only after significant
argument with manger Robert Carvajal, was I able to retrieve them, but I have
no way of knowing if they kept another copy.
My experience in New York City
is unfathomable. In one sense I'm glad for my
own personal safety that I was a white male at a conference full of lawyers.
On the other hand, it makes me sick. Regardless, it is simply
"unsafe at any speed" to allow corporations, chartered domestically
or overseas, to demand production of, and copy and file sensitive
"identity papers" of American citizens, who aren't required to have
any "identity papers" anyway.
But now I know why New York City
is the "City that Never Sleeps" - because
you can't sleep in New York City hotels
unless you have Photo-ID and let the hotel copy and retain it. But even
that may not be good enough - so don't sleep too tight because "…the next
knock you hear on the door…[could be] the police terrorism squad."
You have been warned.
Please join me in boycotting the New
Yorker Ramada Hotel, all Ramada Hotels worldwide, and all New York City Hotels
until they rectify this situation. I recommend you forward this email and
audio file across the US and overseas to associates and to travel agencies to
warn folks about the current third world atmosphere in New York City -
certainly, you do not want to hold any conferences or sleep overnight in New
York City - especially if you are a foreigner, or not in the company of a lot
of lawyers!!. You should not subsidize a corporation who will waste
valuable New York City
police resources harassing paying guests under false
pretenses when the police clearly have better things to do - like protect
people visiting the city.
Also, you may complain directly to the Ramada New Yorker Hotel by
The Ramada corporation can be reached at 1-800-828-6644, or web form
email at
http://www.ramada.com/Ramada/control/email
New York City Mayor Bloomberg can be
reached at
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
phone: (212) 788-9600
FAX: (212) 788-2460
E-Mail: http://nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html
If the Mayor does not investigate this flagrant corporate abuse of New York City police resources, then I am going to ask the Governor of New York to investigate.
Sincerely,
Mike Stollenwerk
Fairfax County Privacy Council
UPDATE (10 April 2003):
I received a written response from the Ramada
corporation informing me that the New Yorker Hotel "…is independently
owned and operated under a Ramada franchise.…we feel the best resolution would
be achieved by direct communication between the property management and
you." To be fair, this response is in response to my phone call to Ramada
Corporation on 3 April 03; they may not even yet be aware of the threat made toward
me by the hotel's General Manager Barry Mann on 4 April 03.
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