While Congress and states around the country pursue legislation to crack down on schemes to obtain and sell personal cell-phone records, Mississippi is taking a slightly different tack to phone records.
No doubt, Mississippians have been scammed by data brokers who ply their pretexting trade over the Internet. But Mississippi taxpayers apparently also are getting a raw deal from state officials and employees-especially those who buy fancy, expensive cell phones to help them serve the public. That’s why a provision included in a bill signed into law by Gov. Haley Barbour (R) would make cell-phone records of all state employees-including the governor himself-open to public inspection. You heard right.
It seems oversight of cell-phone purchases and handset usage has been lacking in Mississippi. My guess, supported by some anecdotal evidence, is the cell-phone problem is not limited to Mississippi. How can state government workers be any different than so many millions of other cell-phone subscribers? Folks like slick phones and like talking on them on and off the job.
A 2004 Mississippi state audit found cell-phone purchases and airtime charges of state employees cost taxpayers at least $2.4 million in 2003, according to the Hattiesburg American. The paper said the audit found state agencies were lax in overseeing cell-phone use by state employees, and that acquisition procedures for buying phones and service plans were inconsistent.
The newspaper quoted Rep. John Reeves (R), a champion of the legislation, as saying: “There were many agencies that had cell phones that worked just fine, not expensive, but good and got the job done. These agencies went out and bought these new Razr phones for $600 each. The kicker is taxpayers were paying for it. These people were spending the taxpayers’ money differently than they were their own.”
The new law, whose main thrust is to rein in spending on the expanding number of state vehicles, makes Mississippi’s Department of Technology Services the wireless purchasing agent for all state agencies.
Back in the nation’s capital, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) was crowing about the overwhelming House passage of his Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act.
“Few things are more personal and potentially more revealing than our phone records,” said Smith. “A careful study of these records may reveal details of our medical or financial life. It may even disclose our physical location and occupation-a serious concern for undercover police officers and victims of stalking or domestic violence.”
Mississippi state officials and employees most certainly do not want citizens to have access to their personal and financial lives. That, after all, is the unholy province of the National Security Agency.
