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'Track' Trick: City Cellphone
Follows Time-card 'Cheater' Home
DAVID SEIFMAN
NY
Post
Friday Aug 31, 2007
A 21-year employee of the school system could lose his job after
officials accused him of repeatedly leaving early - and stunned
the worker with data it got by tracking his movements with a city-issued
cellphone, The Post has learned.
In a precedent-setting case, administrative trial judge Tynia
Richard recommended the firing of John Halpin, a veteran supervisor
of carpenters, for cutting out before the end of his shift on
as many as 83 occasions between March 2 and Aug. 9, 2006.
The evidence against Halpin, whose base pay is $300 a day, included
time cards that suspiciously appeared stamped on the same machine,
even though his duties placed him in different locations each
day.
But there was a clincher: data gathered through the GPS system
on Halpin's cellphone, which he accepted in 2005 without being
told it might be used to trace his every move.
(Article continues below)
On March 8, for example, supervisors determined that Halpin was
last in Manhattan at 1:31 p.m. and was home in Levittown, L.I.,
at 2:40 p.m. On March 29, Halpin was found at home at 2:38 p.m.
The earliest he was caught in Levittown was 1:40 p.m. on June
22.
But his shift wasn't supposed to end until 3:30 p.m.
Some workers refused the free-phone offer, saying they preferred
to use their own cells.
Richard said the unsuspecting Halpin "admitted he took the
phone because he liked the walkie-talkie and other functions it
has."
She dismissed concerns about whether the city had to warn Halpin
in advance of the cellphone's tracking abilities.
"The department [of Education] is not expected to notify
its employees of all the methods it may possibly use to uncover
their misconduct," Richard decided.
"The undisputed intent of issuing the cellphone with GPS
was for the department to be able to determine the whereabouts
of its supervisors in the field."
Rachel Minter, a lawyer who specializes in labor relations, said
she knows of very few similar cases because the law hasn't caught
up to the technology.
"This is a very interesting case because it raises issues
very much on the edge," she said.
Halpin questioned the reliability of the data and argued that
his privacy was invaded, since officials tracked him when he wasn't
at work.
In fact, the data found Halpin on numerous occasions turned up
early for his job, sometimes at 6 a.m. His shift started at 8
a.m.
Despite the extra hours Halpin put in without pay, Richard ruled
that it didn't mitigate his early departures and recommended he
be fired.
Halpin has been removed from his duties and is awaiting word
on whether Schools Chancellor Joel Klein will follow the administrative
judge's recommendation.
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