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  49º

07/16/2010 06:16 PM

Less privacy for troopers

By: Aundrea Cline-Thomas

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CHARLOTTE -- Sweeping policy changes implemented by the commander of the N.C. Highway Patrol will not change, for now, despite his resignation. Col. Randy Glover resigned on Friday morning. Charged with revamping the organization, he spent the week traveling across the state introducing new policies aimed at restoring the agencies tarnished reputation.

One of those new rules requires troopers to submit personal cell phone bills to their district offices.

"We're not looking at how much the bill is," explained Glover earlier this week. "They can black that out. I don't care. I'm just looking at the time. How much time they're spending in the organization and talking on their phone."

Laura Hampton of the Employers Association says many people are unaware of how little privacy they have at work. She goes on to explain that in North Carolina, the courts often favor the employers.

"When you walk through the door at work you basically leave your privacy rights in the parking lot," explained Hampton. "When you're at work you're subject to your employers policies, certainly within legal rights."

Monitoring personal cell phones is not a policy commonly practiced in the private sector. The public had mixed opinions about the new rules.

"They're public employees," George Szalony said. "They should be responsible to our budget."

Some believe there should be exceptions.

"What if you have to make an emergency call and it's during work hours," Shelby Askew asked. "What do you do then? They're going to scrutinize that too? That's really a touchy situation."

While it's still uncommon, Hampton says these policies could be a sign of things to come.