Internet Policy

A few weeks ago I was tasked with looking at our city's email and internet policies. My City Manager and Deputy City Manager wanted me to look at two things. First, make sure our policy is current with actual practice and make revisions to strengthen it. Second, review public records requirements regarding electronic communication. Last month the City began following through on a provision of the policy that stated that employees have no right to privacy and their internet usage can be reviewed by management. The IT department was to start generating a monthly report of sites visited to be reviewed by department directors.

At first I became I little worried because throughout the course of a day I probably go to two or three dozen sites. But I am ok since its all in the scope of my work and research that I do. My city manager sits on the state personnel board and commented that a majority of the cases that are coming across the board are related to internet use violations. We're no different, many employees have abused their internet use privileges and visited websites not related to their position or business of the city.

Retention of emails is also interesting. This is in part because despite that there are state laws that govern this many cities do not have similar policies. There is confusion among many people as to where electronic communication fit in with the state laws the govern public records. I remember last year a city in CA a police chief pulled text messages from officer's assigned cell phones. He found questionable texts messages and disciplined the officers. The officer's sued claiming they had a right to privacy. The Circuit court sided with the city and chief but an appeals court overturned the ruling. The matter will likely go to the Supreme Court but until then it raises several questions to consider along with complying with public records laws.