City Uses GPS to Track Employee

By: Steve Nicoles, Reporter

Tools

By Steve Nicoles

Story Created: Jan 22, 2008 at 4:59 PM CST

Story Updated: Jan 22, 2008 at 6:17 PM CST

WELLMAN - A Wellman city worker is out of a job. The city fired Rich Oldfield Monday night. The city kept a watchful eye on Oldfield before finally letting him go. Wellman city leaders say they had several reasons to fire Oldfield. They found most of the problems by tracking his every move at work.

Wellman city leaders had received many complaints about Oldfield. City Administrator Dave Ross said people told him Oldfield was not getting much work done. At the same time, Oldfield and another employee were asking for help because there was too much work to go around. Mayor Ryan Miller said, “We were trying to evaluate the need for extra employees."

The city decided to install a GPS device on Oldfield's work truck to see how much work he got done each day. It is not the kind of GPS most people have in their car, but a box that records where a car has been. University of Iowa Josephine Witte Professor of Law Lea Vander Velde said, “I don't think there's really a concern here with the GPS with the employee's privacy."

The attorney general's office agreed and gave the OK to the city. Here is one example of what the city found. On one morning, Oldfield reportedly logged one hour working on water. But according to the GPS, Oldfield spent most of the hour, 53 minutes, at the maintenance building. Oldfield drove to trio gas, and then drove to a Casey's General Store. Finally, the report says Oldfield just drove around. There are 14 more incidents like this. Miller said, “The real purpose behind the GPS was not to catch someone doing something wrong."

The GPS alone did not force the city to fire Oldfield. But the city says the technology helped them find an employee not doing his job.

More often companies are turning to GPS to keep tabs on where employees are during work hours. Privacy experts say it is totally legal.

Email Steve Nicoles at Steve.Nicoles@kcrg.com

Next Article Dubuque Group Pushes Prayer at Council Meetings

Conversation Guidelines

Be Kind

Don't use abusive, offensive, threatening, racist, vulgar or sexually-oriented language.
Don't attack someone personally. Keep it civil and be responsible.

Share Knowledge

Be truthful. Share what you know and what you are passionate about.
What more do you want to learn? Keep it simple.

Stay focused

Promote lively and healthy debate. Stay on topic. Ask questions and give feedback on the story's topic.

Report Trouble

Help us maintain a quality comment section by reporting comments that are offensive. If you see a comment that is offensive, or you feel violates our guidelines, simply click on the "x" to the far right of the comment to report it.

read the full guidelines here »

Commenting will be disabled on stories dealing with the following subject matter: Violent crime, sexual abuse, Amber Alerts, Operation Quickfinds and suicides.