Visitors to certain town offices, including the town clerk - and certainly municipal staff members - may have noticed a new memo that indicates GPS electronic monitoring has been added to a list of other means of verifying the whereabouts of some town employees and other details about their use of many town vehicles and presence on town property.

The town recently added the satellite global positioning element to a list of possible ways it might monitor staff activities, which already included telephones, computers, hidden cameras, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic and photo-optical means.

The memo also reminds municipal staffers that under state statute, if someone is suspected of wrongdoing, such monitoring may be used to gather evidence.

While this might suggest to some that there is a problem with certain town workers, several municipal department heads defended the expansion as being an employee benefit.

Town Public Works Director Fred Hurley said in numerous cases, the GPS system affixed to all of his department vehicles has been used to defend staff members when they have been accused of speeding or other improper use of those vehicles.

"We've had a number of situations where people have called saying they witnessed a town truck speeding, and we can pull up that vehicle's GPS records to confirm to them that at the time in question, the vehicle was operating well within the speed limit," Mr Hurley said.

He said during the winter, when his department gets calls from residents saying they have not seen a plow on their street for 12 hours, he and his supervisors can look at GPS records and prove a plow has cleared their street - "often several times."

Parks & Recreation Assistant Director of Parks Carl Samuelson will not deny that he has used the GPS monitoring to occasionally remind employees that they may have been parked too long at a local deli, but more importantly, he can use the GPS system to determine if one of the department's huge commercial riding mowers has been inactive for an extended period of time.

"When I see that, I typically take a quick drive out to the location to determine our worker is all right," he said. The GPS system has also been used to illustrate how long it takes for crews to move between far-flung park and municipal locations pulling trailers loaded with equipment.

"We've been able to determine that each vehicle and crew spends about seven hours per week just pulling trailers of equipment from job to job," he said. When there is a problem requiring a Parks maintenance staffer's immediate attention, he can just look at the GPS system to see the closest crew member and dispatch that person to the site.

"This could save a huge amount of time versus trying to call around from crew to crew to find out who is closest to a priority call when something like a gate isn't opening, or sprinklers aren't activating," he said.

The Newtown Bee that his department's system is tied into the electronic dispatching and computer systems located in the various units.

The Newtown Police Department tracks all of its patrol and many of its other vehicles with a GPS system as well. Chief James Viadero told 

"Our vehicles have had GPS capabilities for a number of years based on the CAD software that we utilize," he said. "As for the monitoring of our fleet, it is not punitive in nature but is an officer safety component that can be utilized in the event our officers are in the field and unable to respond to their radio," he explained.

Similarly to the parks maintainers, Chief Viadero said the GPS locator can also be used by dispatch to send the nearest unit to a potential call.

"As to the municipal fleets other than the PD, I'm sure the department heads of those specific vehicles can effectively use the new monitoring as a management tool to know where their personnel are," he added.

Town Human Resources Manager Patrice Fahey responded to a query stating, "In this world of social media and cellphones the town needs to be current with protecting its assets."

She said the town maintains video surveillance in the town clerk's office for the security of the documents kept in the vault, many of which are historical land records. It is mainly used to monitor destruction of, or tampering with, the records.

"If residents want to take photos of documents or want copies of documents, they need to pay a fee," the HR director said. "None of the documents may be removed from the town clerk's office."

She said First Selectman Dan Rosenthal agrees that "the video surveillance and GPS is in place so that the town is proactive in ensuring safety for both residents and employees. It is also to protect the town's assets and safeguard it from any workplace issues and unlawful conduct. It's possible it could be used for disciplinary purposes."

Mr Hurley said in the rare instance there has been a disciplinary concern, having the GPS evidence can lead to positive coaching of a valued staff member that helps keep both the individual and the town from being exposed to damage or harm. He added that the town can lawfully use any GPS evidence it gathers now that the updated surveillance notifications have been officially posted in all municipal buildings.

In the coming months, additional high definition video cameras, including hidden cameras, will be going on line. Mr Samuelson said the necessary fiber optic infrastructure has been completed for such cameras at park locations, Eichler's Cove, and the parks maintenance facility at Fairfield Hills.

Mr Hurley said the Public Works facility will feature similar technology that can produce high definition imaging of vehicles and persons coming into and out of the facility, day or night. That camera technology will be looped with a sophisticated license plate scanner that will tag vehicles' owners to corresponding video imaging.

Both he and Mr Samuelson say that such systems will go far toward reducing theft and vandalism, and will produce imaging that will easily identify subjects, so local police can pursue charges against offenders with appropriate evidence.