Union Leader Challenges New Police Social Media Policy

Rye officials approved a new social media policy for the police department this month that Rye Police Benevolent Association president Franco Compagnone denounced an email to PBA members on which he copied the press.

The new “General Order” was created to set policies and standards for police department social media use based on “industry-wide best practices,” according to the resolution.

The order was provided to the Rye Police Association in April for review pursuant to the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement, Commissioner Connors told the Council at the June 11 city council meeting.  Compagnone claims the PBA did not get the policy until he challenged it and says it violates members’ first amendment freedoms. 

The policy provides information of a “precautionary nature as well as restrictions on certain uses of social media by department personnel.” It states that all social media pages clearly identify as the official website for the department, all sites must by approved by the Police Commissioner William Connors or his designee; that comments will be monitored; follow the law; that any department member must have permission to use the official social media pages.

It lays out the potential uses of social media like updating the community on road closures, offering online-reporting opportunities and sharing crime data. 

It also sets “precautions and prohibitions” for department personnel’s personal use of social media. 

“Department personnel are free to express themselves as private citizens on social media sites to the degree that their speech does not impair working relationships of this department for which loyalty and confidentiality are important, impede the performance of duties, impair discipline and harmony among coworkers or negatively affect the public perception of the department.”

The policy also warns that as “public employees” police members’ speech on or off duty “made pursuant to their official duties” is not protected speech under the First Amendment and members should assume that their speech and related activity on social media sites will reflect upon their office and the department.

It further cautions officers not to identify themselves as such and to follow the department’s code of conduct on their personal pages. It says that personal my be subject to civil litigating for defamation or publishing private facts about someone without their permission.  

In his email, Compagnone called the policy “oppressive” but did not go into any further detail. He also said the PBA would support any of its members who chose not to sign it.

Under collective bargaining, the rules and regulations can still be changed, Connors told the council at the June 11 meeting.

Read the full social media policy here on page 36. 

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What do you think of the department's new policy on social media? Please share your thoughts in the comments.