The new policy comes after fire personnel have written a number of heated, politically charged barbs aimed at the department, Clack, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the City Council.

The Baltimore City Fire Department plans to implement new social media guidelines after Chief James S. Clack said he found that firefighters and officers were \”crossing the line\” by posting inappropriate or sensitive information online.

The social media website Twitter has become a forum for griping about City Hall policies in 140 characters or fewer — the maximum allowed in postings. The new policy comes after fire personnel have written a number of heated, politically charged barbs aimed at the department, Clack, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the City Council over a recent budgetary decision to close three fire companies in the city.

\”If citizens/firefighters [are] hurt/die in areas of closings,\” Wilbur Smith, a nine-year department veteran with Truck 10, one of the companies set to close, wrote on Twitter last month, city politicians will \”have to live knowing they could have prevented it.\”

The policy, which is still being drafted, would provide guidelines on appropriate social media postings. Some firefighters said they worry that the policy would be used as a political tool to stifle dissent among their ranks, and free-speech advocates have raised concerns about the right of employees to air opinions without fear of reprisal.

\”It\’s happening more and more, cases are cropping up across the country, and it\’s troubling for people who care about free speech,\” said David L. Hudson, a scholar at the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, who has written about public employees\’ social media rights.

\”If the public employer deems that the online comments of a public employee are detrimental to the internal operations of the company, then sometimes employees are suspended, punished and disciplined.\”

BY KEVIN RECTOR
THE BALTIMORE SUN
CREATED: JULY 13, 2012