Union accuses Gresham police of illegally spying on officers
GRESHAM, Ore. (AP) - The union representing Gresham police officers filed a formal grievance after learning that superiors used a hidden camera to try to find out who had been writing sexist insults to a female sergeant.
The union grievance accuses the department of illegal spying and violating employees' rights under the union contract, wrote Mark Makler, a lawyer for the Gresham Police Officers' Association.
The camera represented a change in working conditions, and changes like that must be negotiated with the union, Makler wrote.
But Police Chief Carla Piluso said the department had to protect Sgt. Teddi Anderson, who opened her top desk drawer Jan. 24 and found a sexist insult written on a torn piece of paper. She later found the same insult typed on her computer screen.
A few days after the ceiling camera was installed, Anderson found the same insult scrawled on her car's driver-side mirror. Investigators then trained another camera on her parking spot. "I knew there would be risks involved with the placement of the camera," Piluso said told The Oregonian newspaper. But, she added: "I had a greater responsibility to an employee who was being harassed to the point of criminal activity."
The cameras failed to uncover who sent the messages. About 51 percent of employers surveyed by the American Management Association in 2005 reported using video monitoring to counter theft, violence or sabotage. Few laws guarantee workplace privacy, except in areas such as locker rooms and bathrooms where there's likely to be nudity and where secret videotaping could constitute a crime, said David Fidanque, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon. Union representatives said several workers, both male and female, had been using the shared sergeant's office to change clothes, but Piluso said no one should have been changing in the office.
Makler, the lawyer for the union, said the hidden camera violated other parts of the union contract, such as investigating union members without just cause and without giving them an opportunity to defend themselves. Piluso disagreed. Because there were no suspects, "we were monitoring a crime scene, not individuals," she said.
Department and union officials plan to meet next week to see if they can resolve the grievance, said Senior Assistant City Attorney Miles Ward. If not, the union can ask for arbitration with the Oregon Employment Relations Board.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)