These are public records: BlackBerry, text and PIN messages, as well as messages exchanged on social media sites, sent in the course of official business, according to Attorney General Bill McCollum.
Whether a public official sends these records using his personal cell phones, private email accounts or government-provided devices, the records must all be retained, he said based on a review of his Sunshine Technology Team.
In light of that, McCollum is asking Secretary of State Kurt Browning to write new rules that require all government agencies throughout the state to set up a process to retain these records and comply with state public records laws. Here's McCollum's letter.
"We are clearly setting forth what we think the standard should be,'' McCollum said in a press conference today. "The bottom line is: everything can be retained.''
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