208.00 Social & Visual Media.docx

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES SECTION: 200.00 / Rules and Regulations Guideline: 208.00 Social and Visual Media Policy Effective Date: 10-27-2010 Revision Date: 1/2023 208.00 Social and Visual Media Policy 208.10 Social Media Any written, auditory, and/or visual messages communicated by a member tha...

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES SECTION: 200.00 / Rules and Regulations Guideline: 208.00 Social and Visual Media Policy Effective Date: 10-27-2010 Revision Date: 1/2023 208.00 Social and Visual Media Policy 208.10 Social Media Any written, auditory, and/or visual messages communicated by a member that are relative to DeSoto Fire Rescue in any capacity are the sole property of DeSoto Fire Rescue. This includes but is not limited to, any written, auditory, and/or visual messages communicated via or on Department resources or via or on personal devices and/or social media. This includes our intellectual property, such as our logo, name, uniform, equipment, etc., as well as photos and written content. Members of DeSoto Fire Rescue shall not criticize or ridicule DeSoto Fire Rescue, its policies, its officers, or other members by speech, writing, or other expression, when such speech, writing, or expression: 1. is defamatory, obscene, slanderous, or unlawful; and/or 2. tends to interfere with the maintenance of proper discipline; and/or 3. damages or impairs the reputation and/or efficiency of the Department, or its members. This includes, but is not limited to, written, auditory, and/or visual messages communicated via or on Department resources or via personal devices, such as cell phones, PDAs, etc., and/or social media (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.). 208.20 Photography/Videography PURPOSE: The purpose of this policy is to manage the use of photography and videography by fire department personnel in accordance with state law in such a way that the privacy rights of department personnel, patients, fire victims, and the public are respected; that evidentiary concerns related to such images are protected; that the state’s public records law is complied with; and the professional image of the department is maintained. POLICY: It is the policy of DeSoto Fire Rescue to respect the privacy interests of Department personnel, patients, fire victims, and the public; to meet all evidentiary requirements that may arise in the course of business. This policy covers helmet cams, dash cams, digital cameras, video recorders, camera features of cellular telephones, and any other imaging device. These devices shall be referred to as cameras from this point forward. DEFINITIONS Images – digital photographs, digital images, video recordings, or electronic files containing a graphic image or series of images as well as any digital reproductions or copies of such images. This definition shall extend to derivations of the term images, including image, imagery, and imaging. Fire Chief Designee- includes any ranking member of the department at a chief level. PROCEDURE A. On-Duty Photography 1. Fire department personnel may find themselves in a situation where they need to use non-department Cameras while on duty. Example: medics on a major accident using their cell phone camera to document the mechanism of injury. In those situations, the department still retains ownership of the captured images and they must follow the intent of this policy. 2. On-duty personnel shall only take images that are of business-related matters of the department and events for purposes of incident documentation, evidence, training, investigation, and/or public relations. All images taken shall be considered public records and shall be managed in accordance with standard department practices for the retention and preservation of public records. Arson Investigation: 5yrs from determination Fire Incidents: 5 years from the date of the incident EMS Incidents: 6 years from the date of the incident 3. The Fire Chief or his/her designee may inspect any Cameras in the possession of an on-duty member at any time. Members are advised that they have no expectation of privacy in the contents of any Camera in their possession while on duty. 4. All images taken with a Camera by on-duty personnel shall be preserved and shall not be deleted without the permission of the Fire Chief or his/her designee, except as permitted by the department’s record retention policy. 5. All images taken by on-duty personnel are the sole property of the department and are under the control of the Fire Chief or his/her designee. For purposes of copyright law such images are considered to be a work for hire owned solely and exclusively by the fire department. 6. Personnel are expressly prohibited from taking any images of another person in any location where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, including a bathroom, bedroom, locker room, changing area, or any other location where a reasonable person would believe that he or she could disrobe in privacy, without being concerned that his or her undressing was being photographed, filmed, or videotaped by another; or a place where one would reasonably expect to be safe from hostile intrusion or surveillance. B. Responding to, operating at, and returning from, incident scenes 1. Imagery taken by on-duty personnel while responding to, operating at, and returning from incident scenes shall be for incident documentation, evidentiary, training, investigation, and/or public relations purposes only, and shall be subject to any limitations or restrictions imposed by the incident commander. 2. The taking of imagery shall not interfere with nor delay operational activities. 3. All imagery containing individually identifiable patient information shall be presumed to be covered by HIPAA and state medical privacy laws and shall be protected in the same manner as patient care reports and medical documentation. C. Handling and Preservation of Images 1. Fire department owned images shall not be used, printed, copied, scanned, emailed, texted, forwarded, posted, uploaded, shared, reproduced or distributed in any manner, except as provided herein in this policy. This prohibition specifically includes the posting of any images on personal Web sites such as, but not limited to: Facebook, MySpace, or YouTube; posting to public safety Websites; or emailing to friends, relatives, colleagues, or other third parties unless and until formally released as a public record or approved by an Administrative Chief. 2. All fire department owned images as described in this policy shall be downloaded from the Camera as soon as possible after they are taken, and will be cataloged and stored in an archive in the Battalion Chief’s office. After being downloaded and verifying that the downloading is successful, the images on the Camera and/or memory card shall be erased. Images should be cataloged on the drive in a folder for that year by date followed by incident number. Ex: 7-10-14-4010023 3. Imagery that has known evidentiary value; as determined by law enforcement and/or the Fire Marshal including vehicular accidents involving department vehicles, fire scenes showing evidence of cause and origin, incident scenes showing the locations of victims, fire code violations, etc., shall be made available to them upon request. 4. Images in the archive shall not be accessed by any party, or altered via any software product or utility such as Photoshop, unless express permission is granted in writing by the Fire Chief or his/her designee. If permission to alter an image is granted, the original image shall not be altered in any way, and any copies that are altered shall be appropriately identified and documented as to being an altered copy. 5. The use of fire department owned images by any member, and the release of any images by the department as public records shall be subject to the approval of the Fire Chief or his/her designee. Before the release of any image, the image shall be evaluated by the Fire Chief or his/her designee to ensure that the release will not result in a breach of patient confidentiality or breach of privacy, and that the release will, in all other respects, be lawful. 6. Use of department owned Cameras to take images for personal purposes is strictly prohibited, except as allowed under subsection D of this policy. 7. Violation of this policy or failure to permit inspection of any device covered in this policy may result in disciplinary action. D. Personal Images Exception 1. This policy shall not apply to images taken by on-duty personnel with a Camera for purely personal and non-business purposes. This exception is intended to include non-work related images of friends and family members during a fire station visit, and personal images of coworkers such as coworkers posing for a group photo, birthday celebration of an on-duty member, etc. 2. This exception shall not apply to imagery taken at emergency scenes, training events, or during other official activities of the department, if it may have any training, operational, documentation, fire department business, public business, or evidentiary value. 3. Imagery taken according to this exception shall not contain profanity, nudity or partial nudity, horseplay, hazing, harassment, being offensive, or depicting vulgar or sexually suggestive images. 4. Imagery taken according to this exception shall not be used or sold for profit. 5. Any image taken according to this exception that captures public or business related matters of the department that make it subject to the public records law, shall be considered to be a department-owned photo and must comply with the procedures required for department-owned photos, including the need to archive and the need to obtain formal permission to use.