Story posted Friday, April 2, 2010
Why City Turned Off Text Messaging
By TODD WESSELL Journal & Topics Editor
A recent request by the Journal & Topics Newspapers for certain electronic text message records of former City Manager Jason Bajor has triggered the decision to cut off allowing city employees to communicate in that manner for at least the time being.
The 60 Des Plaines employees who use city-owned Blackberries have not been able to send or receive text messages as of mid-January.
The Journal & Topics on Dec. 21 asked to receive copies of certain text messages sent and received by Bajor between June 1 and Dec. 23, 2009. At that time, the newspaper was following up on numerous tips that Bajor's job with the city was in jeopardy and the text messages would provide clues concerning why he might leave or be asked to leave. The request for the records was never fulfilled because the city said its does not have the technological ability to retrieve the records and because Blackberry vendor, Sprint/Nextel, said it does not have to comply with the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, which the Journal & Topics was citing in its request.
"With this unhelpful attitude, our choice was to disable text messaging while we attempt to find a technology solution," wrote Michael Duebner, Des Plaines' director of Information Technology in a Jan. 15, 2010 memorandum to City Attorney Dave Wiltse. "Therefore," added Duebner, "pending a review of various technologies that enhance the city's ability to store and log text messages, we have disabled the ability to compose and send MMS (multimedia message service) messages from the city's Blackberry devices."
That means that no one in the city's workforce who has been issued a Blackberry can send or receive text messages using those devices. Up until that time, they all had that capability, including Bajor, who the Journal & Topics has been told, used it extensively.
Blackberry cell phones are popular because they allow users not only to talk, but to communicate via email and text messaging. Duebner said the 60 city employees who have Blackberries were issued them because they are either department heads, staff directors or high-ranking fire and police personnel who might need them during emergency situations. Many more city employees are issued city cell phones that don't have email capabilities of Blackberries.
"A reason a lot of departments use text messaging is because during certain emergencies, cell towers get overwhelmed with phone calls," Duebner explained during a telephone interview on Monday. He said that in those situations, while cell phones cannot be used because of electronic overload, text messaging can.
Duebner said that he was surprised by Sprint's response to the text messaging records request.
"It wasn't the answer we were expecting in all honesty," he said. "We asked how we could get those records and they said we can't unless we have a court order or subpoena." Because of that response, added Duebner, the decision was to disable the text messaging feature in all city-issued Blackberries until a solution can be found.
"We feel we should just disconnect at this time," said Duebner. "Now they (city employees) can pick up the phone or send an email. We do have a record of that." He added that employees used text messaging very little. Resurrecting text messaging on those Blackberries is a "medium priority," Duebner said.
‘The definition of a public record clearly includes electronic messages," said Don Craven, attorney for the Illinois Press Association and a leading expert on the state's Freedom of Information Act. "Governments must produce public records on request. If they aren't they aren't following the law. It's the city that has to conform with the request, not Sprint. If I was the city and I was asked for some records that were mine and they weren't given to me I'd find a new vendor."
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