(A) The purpose of this policy is to direct employees with respect to his or her use of social media and social networking, and the direct affect such use has upon the reputation and perception of the city.
(B) Employees are prohibited from posting any of the following on any social media networking platform, either on his or her own sites, the sites of others known to them, the sites of others unknown to them, news media pages, or other information exchange forums:
(1) Any text, photograph, audio, video, or any other multimedia file related to any action and/or investigation of the city, both current and past;
(2) Any text, photograph, audio, video, or any other multimedia file related to any action of the city, both current and past, either in homage or critique;
(3) Any text, photograph, audio, video, or any other multimedia file related to any occurrence of within the city, including, but not limited to:
(a) Fellow employees; and
(b) Work performed on behalf of the city.
(C) Pictures of employees in uniforms or other forms of city identification are not to be used in any form of social media (without the prior written approval of the applicable department head).
(D) Employees who choose to maintain or participate in social media or networking platforms while off duty shall always conduct themselves with professionalism and in such a manner that will not reflect negatively upon themselves or the city. The following rules shall apply.
(1) Employees will be held responsible for content that appears on his or her maintained social media or social networking sites, and will be obligated to remove any posting or material contributed by others that is detrimental to the reputation of this city, or that is not in accordance with this policy and all other policies.
(2) Employees shall not post sexually graphic or explicit material of any kind on any form of social media or social networking, and shall immediately remove any material of this nature posted on his or her site by another individual.
(3) Weaponry of any kind shall not be displayed or referenced to in any multimedia format on sites that might depict, promote, or glorify violence or terrorism of any type.
(4) Any text, photograph, audio, video, or any other multimedia file included on a site that infers, implies, state, opines, or otherwise expresses the employee’s view on the public, legal, judicial, criminal systems, or other department shall not be detrimental to the department’s mission, values, or vision statement or violate any policies.
(5) Any text, photographs, audio, video, or any other multimedia file that contains obscene or explicit language, including, but not limited to, cursing, racist, sexist, religious, or slanderous comments.
(E) Employees should be aware that he or she may be subject to civil litigation along with formal discipline for publishing or posting false information that harms the reputation of another person, group, or organization, otherwise known as defamation.
(F) Employees should be aware that privacy settings and social media sites are constantly in flux, and he or she should never assume that personal information posted on such sites is protected.
(G) Employees should expect that any information created, transmitted, downloaded, exchanged, or discussed in public online forums or social media or social networking sites may be accessed by the city at any time without prior notice.
(Ord. 2013-7, passed 8-28-2013)