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Policy 204Santa Ana Police Department Santa Ana PD Policy Manual Copyright Lexipol, LLC 2019/03/19, All Rights Reserved. Published with permission by Santa Ana Police DepartmentElectronic Mail - 1Electronic Mail 204.1 PURPOSE AND SCOPE The purpose of this policy is to establish guidelines for the proper use and application of the Department’s electronic mail (email) system by employees of this department. Email is a communication tool available to employees to enhance efficiency in the performance of job duties and is to be used in accordance with generally accepted business practices and current law (e.g., California Public Records Act). Messages transmitted over the email system must only be those that involve official business activities or contain information essential to employees for the accomplishment of business-related tasks and/or communication directly related to the business, administration, or practices of the Department. 204.2 POLICY This policy will provide guidelines regarding the use of the City electronic mail system and define the acceptable use of those services. The City of Santa Ana has promulgated electronic mail policies that provide further guidance regarding the electronic mail system (See City Policy and Procedure IT-02). Employees are required to review the City Policy & Procedure and are subject to those policies, as well. 204.3 EMAIL RIGHT OF PRIVACY All email messages, including any attachments, that are transmitted over department networks are considered department records and therefore are deemed City property. The Department reserves the right to access, audit or disclose, for any lawful reason, any message including any attachment that is transmitted over its email system or that is stored on any department system. The email system is not a confidential system since all communications transmitted on, to or from the system are the property of the Department. Therefore, the email system should not be used for confidential communications. If a communication must be private, an alternative method to communicate the message should be used instead of email. Employees using the Department’s email system shall have no expectation of privacy concerning communications utilizing the system. Employees should not use personal accounts to exchange email or other information that is related to the official business of the Department. 204.4 PROHIBITED USE OF EMAIL Sending derogatory, defamatory, obscene, disrespectful, sexually suggestive and harassing or any other inappropriate messages on the email system is prohibited and may result in discipline. Email messages addressed to the entire department are only to be used for official business related items that are of particular interest to all users and must be approved by a Commander/ Manager or above. Personal advertisements are not acceptable. Santa Ana Police Department Santa Ana PD Policy Manual Electronic Mail Copyright Lexipol, LLC 2019/03/19, All Rights Reserved. Published with permission by Santa Ana Police DepartmentElectronic Mail - 2It is a violation of this policy to transmit a message under another user’s name. Users are strongly encouraged to log off the network when their computer is unattended. This added security measure minimizes the misuse of an individual’s email, name and/or password by others. 204.5 EMAIL RECORD MANAGEMENT Emails may, depending upon the individual content, be a public record under the California Public Records Act and must be managed in accordance with the established records retention schedule and in compliance with state law. The Custodian of Records shall ensure that email messages are retained and recoverable as outlined in the Records Maintenance and Release Policy.