IE 11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

Google Maps Pinpoints Confidential Safe House in Santa Rosa, Calif.

The unsolicited identification of the house, which shelters women and children escaping from domestic violence, is now part of a national issue regarding the safety of such shelters on Google maps.

(TNS) -- The simple online search revealed the location of a Santa Rosa, Calif., safe house for women and children escaping from domestic violence, puncturing the confidentiality of the program run by the YWCA of Sonoma County for 35 years.

The large house, which on Tuesday sheltered eight women and 14 children, was listed on a Google Maps search of Santa Rosa, and even though the on-screen information box said it was at an “undisclosed location” the map pinpointed its exact site.

“That’s disturbing,” said Madeleine Keegan O’Connell, chief executive officer of the YWCA, which has operated the safe house since 1980. “It’s a confidential location.”

In a matter of hours on Tuesday, Google, the Internet search giant, wiped the house from its map.

The unsolicited online identification of the Santa Rosa YWCA shelter made it part of a national issue advanced recently by Louisiana man, who has called on Google to remove the addresses of such shelters from its maps. The online petition posted on the website change.org by Jeremy Janice, who identified himself as a worker at a Lafayette, La. domestic violence shelter, has secured more than 54,000 signatures by Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, search engines like Google make it easy for perpetrators of domestic violence to find secret shelter addresses,” the petition says.

The petition does not present data on how many safe houses are identified by location on Google or other search engines. The campaign does not say how many incidents have stemmed from the online disclosure of shelter locations, which Janice said preferably would only be identified online by a phone number.

“This is a problem many domestic violence organizations have been trying to solve,” the petition states. “We can’t do it alone, and need Google’s help.”

The YWCA goes to considerable lengths to maintain the security of its Santa Rosa shelter, the only confidential safe house in the county, according to O’Connell. YWCA officials counsel children who stay there not to reveal the location and offer women residents untraceable cellphones — 50 are kept on hand — to prevent an abuser from tracking them on their personal smartphones.

Dawn Silveira, the safe house manager, said the Internet has complicated that effort, noting that postings on a Facebook page may reveal a person’s location and that young adults who wish glean such information are adept at getting it.

One woman who was intent on coming to the safe house determined that her automobile, equipped with a communication and navigation system, could be used to locate her, so she arranged another means of reaching the house, the YWCA officials said.

The safety concerns have not fallen on deaf ears in Silicon Valley.

A Google spokeswoman said the Mountain View-based technology company has worked closely with domestic violence advocates.

“We partner directly with these groups to ensure that if an undisclosed shelter location surfaces in Google Maps, we remove it swiftly,” Mara Harrism, the spokeswoman, said in an email.

O’Connell, the local YWCA leader, said she emailed Harris at Google on Tuesday and received a reply four minutes later in which Harris said she had expedited removal of the Santa Rosa safe house from Google maps. By mid-afternoon Tuesday it no longer appeared there.

In the last 10 years, fewer than a handful of abusers have come by the Santa Rosa safe house, O’Connell said, but the occupants’ safety is an ongoing concern for the YWCA.

The seven-bedroom house, with 27 beds, was purchased by the YWCA in 1980, shelters more than 2,000 women and children a year. The YWCA’s 24-hour crisis hotline at 546-1234 fields more than 3,000 calls a year, and offers women a “safety plan” that may include coming to the shelter.

In her emailed statement, Harris, the Google spokeswoman, included a comment by Kim Gandy, president and CEO of National Network to End Domestic Violence, stating that her group has worked with Google for years to protect the confidentiality of shelter locations.

“Google has taken our concerns very seriously, understands the need to maintain confidentiality, and has been extremely responsive and responsible,” Gandy said. The statement was confirmed by her organization.

Cindy Southworth, a spokeswoman for the national group, said in an email: “We have an expedited removal system with Google and get any hidden shelter that is found in Google pulled immediately.”

©2015 The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.), Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.