ISLIP, N.Y. - GPS tracking devices installed on government-issue vehicles are helping communities around the country reduce waste and abuse, in part by catching employees shopping, working out at the gym, or otherwise loafing while on the clock.
The use of a Global Positioning System has led to firings, stoking complaints from employees and unions that the devices are intrusive, Big Brother technology. But city officials say that monitoring employees' movements has deterred abuses, saving the taxpayers money and lost productivity.
"We can't have public resources being used on private activities - that's Management 101," said Phil Nolan, supervisor of the Long Island town of Islip.
Islip saved nearly 14,000 gallons of gas over a three-month period from the previous year after GPS devices were installed. Nolan said that shows that employees know they are being watched and are no longer using Islip's 614 official vehicles for personal business.
Some administrators around the country emphasized that the primary purpose of the GPS devices is not to catch people goofing off but to improve the maintenance and operation of the vehicles and to design more efficient bus, snowplow, and trash-pickup routes. Among other things, the devices can be used to alert mechanics that a car's engine is operating inefficiently.
Still, in Indiana, six employees of the Fort Wayne-Allen County Health Department lost their jobs last year after an administrator bought three Global Positioning Satellite devices out of her own pocket and switched them in and out of 12 department vehicles to nail health inspectors running personal errands on the job.
Employees were caught going to stores, gyms, restaurants, churches, and their homes. The administrator was reimbursed the $750 she spent on the devices.
One of those who got in trouble, 27-year employee Elaine Pruitt, decried what she called "sneaky" methods. She said she had fallen ill and stopped at her home for a lunch break, returning to work 38 minutes late.
"Before, as long as we got our work done, there was never any problem," Pruitt said. "All of a sudden, it became wrong if you stopped at a grocery store for some gum."
In Massachusetts two years ago, a snowplow driver was accused of hiding his GPS device in a snowbank and then going off to do some private plowing. The driver pleaded guilty to a larceny charge and was fined $300.
In Denver, 76 vehicles equipped with GPS devices this year were driven 5,000 fewer miles than the unequipped fleet had during the same period the year before.
"It's growing by leaps and bounds," said Chris Ransom of Networkcar, one of the country's leading providers of GPS devices.
In Delaware, GPS was used to confirm that two employees using state vehicles were going home early, said Terry Barton Jr., fleet administrator for the state. He would not say what action, if any, was taken against the employees.
"If they're in charge of the car and they decide to go visit their Aunt Mary, we'll know that they went someplace they weren't supposed to," Barton said. "It has a chilling effect."
"If we're getting fuel reduction and fewer accidents, and having our people slowing down, it more than pays for itself," Barton said.
The Teamsters are negotiating more contracts that protect workers from being spied on or punished as a result of the devices, union spokeswoman Leslie Miller said. She said the union's tentative contract with
Sean Thomas, chief of staff for the Manchester, N.H., mayor's office, said a plan to use GPS units on garbage trucks was scrapped after union opposition.
"They said, 'You are watching us like Big Brother,' " Thomas said.
