GPS on your work vehicle?

[Guest FFNick]

In today's Connecticut Post:

AARON LEO aleo@ctpost.com

Article Last Updated: 01/14/2008 10:41:52 PM EST

BRIDGEPORT — Departmental hearings against two city fire inspectors — facing termination for allegedly using their work minivans for personal business — will proceed after a Superior Court judge rejected their argument that the Global Positioning System units in their new municipal vehicles violated the state's electronic-monitoring law.

http://www.connpost.com/localnews/ci_7971546

Edited January 15, 2008 by jack10562

[20y2 43]

When will people learn, there is NO expectation of privacy in any work vehicle, ever. You are at work to work!

[ltjay157 10]

Just my 2 cents, if you're a public servant using taxpayer vehicles, you have no right to privacy. These "Fire Inspectors" are supposed to do inspections of comercial buildings, mult-family dwellings. They are supposed to be finding hazards that could hamper firefighting efforts or even kill a firefighter. For them to falsify a log stating they were in one place when they were out doing personal business with a city vehicle is a disgrace. They claim that they didn't know that the new vehicles had GPS installed. Funny, i remeber the article last year stating the new vans would be GPS enabled to keep track of the Inspectors during working hours for accountability. Also, the article from last year stated it was to track whether or not the Inspectors were doing their jobs. That seems like plenty of notice to me. As a dispatcher, everything I do is taped/monitored to see if everything was done within guidelines of my agency. I'm just sick of public servants that cry foul when they get caught doing something they shouldn't have been doing. If they did their job, they wouldn't be in the situation they are now.

Edited January 15, 2008 by DOC22

[Guest FFNick]

They claim that they didn't know that the new vehicles had GPS installed. Funny, i remeber the article last year stating the new vans would be GPS enabled to keep track of the Inspectors during working hours for accountability. Also, the article from last year stated it was to track weather or not the Inspectors were doing their jobs or not.

Jay - Just a point for those here - when these new vans were issued to the FM Division, they were not told that they were GPS enabled, neither was the Maintenance Division. You may be thinking of the article when the FD first announced that the vans had GPS, which was well after these vans were received. I'm not sure where you are getting the weather thing from. You still have a link to that article?

[ltjay157 10]

I don't have a link to the article. I was going off of what I remembered from the article that was written last year. I could have sworn that I remebered things correctly.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

They are supposed to be finding hazards that could hamper firefighting efforts or even kill a firefighter.

While I agree with you brother....sadly building codes are no way designed nor effective for what you mention above. Especially the hampering firefighting efforts part. Building codes, the fire code more specifically are designed to prevent fire and to try to ensure that occupants can effectively and efficiently evacuate from a building, slow fire spread in some cases and protect certain hazards at a higher level then other parts of the building when present. Go to the NYS Fire Code and look under the Firefighter safety section. Its only a few pages.

You have to be smart with anything you do and they were just dumb. Why not just go get the inspection done and if you had to take care of something quick that is farily important then ok. I know I've had a few instances where I had to mail something important or get a deposit in and simply asking my supervisor and getting my assignments done didn't cause any big deal. I don't care if someone is at work and does something quickly as long as it doesn't impede the work you are supposed to get done. But lying about something like an inspection that you did it when you were never even there....unethical and if something happened in that building..negligible.

[IzzyEng4 427]

Always expect the unexpected.