Crime & Safety

Fire District Passes Social Media Policy, Wellness Plan

The board unanimously approved the two additions to the Mehlville Fire Protection District, which covers areas in the Affton and Shrewsbury neighborhoods.

The —which covers Affton and Shrewsbury neighborhoods—can now monitor firefighters’ social media accounts and search district-provided cell phones with the passage of a new policy.

The fire board unanimously approved the district’s first social media policy along with a .

The policy addition is proactive, Chief Brian Hendricks said. The district hasn’t had any issues with employees using social media inappropriately, but is trying to stay ahead of the curve.

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Hendricks introduced the measure at a board meeting July 5 and officials fine-tuned the policy after meeting with firefighter union representatives.

Originally, the policy stated employees could not participate in social networking while on duty. The new policy states employees are prohibited from using district equipment for social media.

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Changes also include adding YouTube to the list of social media accounts. The video sharing site can be used for recording training exercises.

Most departments have social media policies, and Mehlville’s would lay the framework and foundation for what employees can and can’t do, the chief said.

The policy states that the district can review employee Facebook, Twitter, blog and other posts, expecting professionalism on and off-duty.

Here are a few other points in the policy (the full version is attached to this article): 

  • Employees cannot use fire district equipment, including computers, company-licensed software or other electronic equipment, apparatus, facilities or company time to conduct personal blogging or social networking activities.
  • Employees shall not participate in social networking activities on District computers or District provided communication devices or equipment.
  • Bloggers and commenters are personally responsible for their commentary on blogs and social networking sites.  Bloggers and commenters can be held personally liable for commentary that is considered defamatory, obscene, proprietary or libelous by any offended party, not just Mehlville Fire Protection District.
  • While on duty, employees shall not use personal devices (photos, audio, video or journals) to record any type of event or emergency response.  Further, employees shall not post any inappropriate images. 
  • The District may monitor all messages and information on District provided communication devices or equipment while employees are both on and off duty.   Employees need to anticipate their District provided communication devices or equipment may be monitored for seemingly routine business purposes or no purpose at all.
  • Employees may not publically discuss patients, employees or any or work related matters, whether confidential or not, outside of company-authorized communications. 


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