The 4,357 text messages and 307 phone calls made on and to a cellphone owned by the University of Arkansas in a seven-month period confirmed the relationship between Coach Bobby Petrino and employee Jessica Dorrell, the mistress half his age.
Paramours not employed by a government agency need not worry that their cellphone records will be subject to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. But anyone who uses a cellphone provided by his or her employer needs to remember this: The company that owns the device is free to set the rules for use, irrespective of the employee’s privacy, and to determine the process for holding noncompliant employees accountable.
“We do not treat it like a perk. We only provide cellular service on a demonstrated need basis that serves a business function for the university,” said David Martinson, UA associate vice chancellor of business affairs. Petrino was among 987 of 4,544 UA employees with university-provided cellphones.
According to the university’s employee handbook, “Cellular phones are provided to some university employees for use as productivity and accessibility enhancement tools.” In addition, personal use of the devices is allowed, but “should be limited in both occurrence and duration.”
The actual text message content remaining on Petrino’s phone, except the messages sent to his family and attorneys, became public record subject to the FOI when he surrendered the phone to the university.
But the university, as the owner of the phone, could have looked at the device and accessed any messages that had not been deleted, even without a public records request, UA spokesman John Diamond said. Discipline for phone misuse is administered on a case-by-case basis, he said.
Deleted messages likely don’t exist anywhere. Ginger Daril, spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless in Arkansas, said Verizon saves text messages on its servers for up to three days before deleting them.
Verizon only retrieves information saved to an individual cellphone once it has been subpoenaed for law enforcement purposes.
Corporate and government owners of cellphones can view the call and text message histories of a phone on phone bills, Daril said.
Policies Vary
It’s up to the owners to oversee the phones’ use, and corporate policies seem to be all over the map.
Paul Rowton, vice president of Edwards Food Giant in Marianna, said his business has an informal policy for how company cellphones should be used, although the Petrino scandal has made him wonder if that should change.
Supervisors and the executive staff, or about nine staffers total, get company-owned phones.
Employees are expected to keep personal calls to a minimum and not use phones while driving, Rowton said. Rowton watches company cellphone bills for repeated personal calls.
At Acxiom Corp., the data-mining company based in Little Rock, only about 30 of approximately 2,100 employees in Arkansas use company-provided cellphones. The phones, however, are only assigned to employees while they are on call, spokesman Jonathan Portis said.
“If they’re on call, they would take it home. If they’re not on call … it would be given to another associate,” Portis said. “Records for these phones are kept and routinely examined.”
Company policy dictates discipline for phone-use violations, Portis said.
Most employees use their personal devices for work, and their supervisors determine how much they should be reimbursed, he said.
Acxiom’s policies also prohibit text messaging and using handheld systems while driving.
“Though these are personal phones, Acxiom reserves the right at any time to review call detail records, text messages, SMS messages, email, and any other information reflecting or relating to the use of Company information,” Portis said in an email.
Twenty-eight of the Bank of Fay-etteville’s 110 employees are provided company cellphones, IT manager Les Barnes said. The bank’s senior management team decides who gets cellphones and which individuals need smartphone s or simpler cellphones.
Employees who wish to use company phones for personal use at all must pay a monthly fee.
“I pay $20, and I get to use my cellphone as if it’s mine,” Barnes said. Even so, employees must have security features, such as the ability to lock or wipe the device remotely if it’s lost or stolen, he said.
If employees abuse their phone privileges, then discipline could involve verbal reprimands, loss of the phone or even termination, depending on the offense, Barnes said.
“Every case would be independently evaluated,” he said. “We are representatives of the bank. …You have to be diligent in the way you conduct yourself in your public and private life.”