Chicago Firefighters - City Says No Internet While On-Duty
The powers to be at the Chicago Fire Department are remaining mum on their reasonings, but a general order has been issued that fire fighters are not to access the Internet with their personal systems while on duty. A member can obtain a waiver to the rule, but the specifics as to why thi s is happening is unknown. According to an article over at the ChicagoTimes it states:
The department issued a general order to all firefighters on April 2 that the Internet could no longer be accessed for personal use at stations unless firefighters received a waiver from the department, said Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford. He added however that firefighters can work on their computers during evening down times as long as they do not access the Internet..
While officials said the prohibition had been in the works for months, it was just issued after an investigation was launched into the firefighter’s allegedly inappropriate use of a personal computer. The department declined to be more specific about the allegations.
“We had been working on this general order, so when it occurred it helped us to really finalize the scope of the general order,” said Eve Rodriguez, a Fire Department spokeswoman. “We took quick action and made sure everybody across the board knew about this order.”
It would appear that some fire fighter in Chicago must of ticked off someone, somewhere. I doubt if the full details will ever be really known. 
Full article is here.
Tags: chicago, fire, department, internet, private, computer, systems, general, order, waiver,
Probably because of sexual harassment issues. Many fire departments in America have recently begun prohibiting alcohol and pornography in the stations; the fact that the article hints about “inappropriate use” of the internet suggests to me that someone was searching for snatch while on duty and it caught the ire of someone who didn’t approve.