Cheshire Considering Town Cell Phone Policy
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The town is looking into a phone policy after then Police Chief Timothy Garner recently brought the issue up to the Selectmen.
Garner said the Police Department has three cellphones and that he recommended using FirstNet, a free phone and low-price service for first responders. No one on the department should be using their personal phones, he said, to which the board agreed. Town Administrator Jennifer Morse said the town is already using that service.
Garner said it should be up to new Chief Matthew Wright on what he decided to do.
Morse said town-issued phones are important for employees to help keep their personal and work life separate and private and that there should be a clear policy regarding the phones.
"Cell phones are no longer simply a convenience or an employee benefit; that there, it's a record management keeping, evidence security, privacy, operational readiness, and risk control measure. When police or any town business happens on a personal phone, the employee's private device can become entangled in public records requests, litigation holds, subpoenas, investigations, discovery demand, and for other evidence purposes." Morse said.
"And our phones have been, a few of us have been subject to public records requests within the last couple months, and going a little bit further back, it protects the officer or the staff member and their family's privacy, sensitive victim information, evidence integrity, continuing in access and cybersecurity and accountability. I think letting the new chief decide what he wants to do is definitely the way to go with this."
Chair Michelle Francesconi said there should be townwide transparency on who has phones and who gets reimbursed.
The town should "work to develop a cell phone policy about the use of town-issued cell phones, and that there be some sort of document that is shareable with the Board of Selectmen, so we know without just flipping through the warrant on a biweekly basis, but we know everybody who has a town-issued cell phone, everybody who receives a cell phone reimbursement," she said. So there's just a clear paper trail of when it was issued, and and just a timeline. ... I mean, we, the officers and all town employees, we're all subject to Open Meeting Law and public records requests, and things could be subpoenaed at any point in time."
The conversation broadened into that if the department needs a phone it should be a town-issued phone and not something to be reimbursed as it could be exposed to public records requests.
"It also helps employees separate from their work lives and their personal lives and their work lives, and that's really increasingly difficult with email and technology, just being able to isolate your hours and not be bombarded with work calls all the time," Francesconi said. "So if we can just get a handle on all this, doing the Police Department situation, kind of in tandem with what we're doing in the town."
The board members decided they will keep working on a policy.
In other news, the board members also discussed the non-functioning Fire Department sign that will be replaced in the near future.
They are currently awaiting a quote and some mock-up photos of the new sign from Stewart Signs. The town is considering moving the sign across the street and is in contact with Sommer Electric and National Grid to find out if they can add at least a 150-amp panel and underground wiring and what the quote would be to do that.
Francesconi said the fire chief is able to take the sign down when convenient for him and might be looking into taking away or making the current garden smaller.
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