When I worked for the government, they gave us a work phone (a Blackberry). We were warned not to text (or email) 'anything you wouldn’t want to read on the front page of the Washington Post!" We all used our personal phones (yes, Hillary, we all carried 2 phones around) for anything personal or gossipy. I wouldn’t even email on my personal email account on my office computer, and only used my personal phone for griping about my boss when I was out of the office.
I’m obsessed with true crime and watch the Karen Read trial. She is accused of backing up, hitting her boyfriend (a Boston Cop) and leaving the scene. He died from injuries on the lawn of another Boston Cop, just after a major snow storm. This was in a town near boston but tons of cops, nurses, inlaws of cops involved in the case. Horrible investigation. Even the judge has a connection to some of the cops and their families.
Well yesterday the text messages between Read and a MA State Cop, where Karen and this State cop were flirting like junior high kids (with adult language) were read out loud to the jury. Testimony was not by Read or the State Cop but by his BOSS. Here is this very angry, high level State Cop reading into the record “Do you like me? You are HOT. I’m glad I kissed you. Are you still with John (dead cop)? Do you still like him?” and much worse language from her.
And that’s not even the worst. Yet to come are the texts from the lead investigator, another state cop under the supervision of this guy, to his hs school friends about this defendant, that she’s Smokin’ hot but has a colostomy bag, that he hates her, knows she’s guilty (on the same day as the death), that he’s scrolling through her phone and no sex pictures yet… This guy was investigated and fired for this behavior but he’ll still be called to testify. (this is second trial so we all heard the texts before).
DON’T text on work phones. Don’t email on work computers.
I carry 2 phones. One is fully owned by my employer. The only non-work texts I’ve sent from that phone are texts to my family letting them know my work phone number in case of emergency. If I get fired, my work phone immediately turns into a brick. It isn’t hard to carry 2 phones!
You’d think this shouldn’t even need to be said. Especially to police or their girlfriends. People really need to stop and think a lot more often (or ever).
In this case, a similar conversation between Reed and the other cop on non-work phones would still have been uncovered, when they got all of her texts.
My friend had a work phone & was told that she could make personal calls/texts on it. She had a job in a field that had federal oversight, and she said there was no way she would ever make a personal call on that phone … it could be subpoenaed, and even if nothing she said was an issue, she absolutely did not want the government to have contact information for any of her friends or family. At the time, I thought she was a bit paranoid, but now I understand.
In my last job, my coworker and I dealt with a lot of sensitive issues. We never wrote anything down on a work computer or via a work email address. We would only discuss things face to face, or if that wasn’t possible, by talking on our personal phones (never text or personal email). We had situations where all documentation was subpoenaed, and we were always glad that we didn’t leave a paper or electronic trail that included things we wouldn’t want others to see.
Oh we could make personal calls and texts on our Blackberries and from our desk phones or computers. Anything we couldn’t do like tik tok or FB or whatever were blocked. There is a big difference between texting your kids you won’t be home for dinner and texting a guy you picked up in a bar with ‘Do you think I’m hot’? on a text message. We were just warned not to put it on texts if we didn’t want to read it on the Washington Post.
Yes, they might have picked up texting from Karen Read’s phone, but it wouldn’t have looked as bad as them getting it from his work phone. His personal phone? Oh, he destroyed it about 15 days after the accident by taking the SIM card out and then driving to a federal base (Army I think) and throwing it in a trash bin. Did he have a reason to be on that base? No, he just like to go there to throw out his trash. His phone was ‘just worn out’ so he got a new one and just happened to be throwing out trash on a federal base.
There are SOOO many issues with the cops and the evidence in this case. I just don’t ever want my boss to have to read texts like this into evidence.