Ball State University is no stranger to cell phone bans, but the university has nothing on Allen County. In Allen County courthouses, people who ignore or aren't aware of a cell phone ban stand to have their phones confiscated and destroyed.
Cell phone bans are necessary in some situations, but officials should never destroy expensive electronic equipment if people accidentally break the rules.
At Ball State, custodians were banned from using cell phones in an attempt to increase worker productivity. Ball State's policy, however, includes no provision for destroying cell phones if the ban is broken. On one occasion, a custodian was reprimanded for using a cell phone to call a supervisor after an unresponsive student was found in a residence hall, but no phones were destroyed.
Whether custodians should be allowed to use cell phones in an emergency aside, the policy at Allen County courthouses raises some important considerations for Ball State officials to contemplate when putting bans in place. For any ban, two qualifications must be met: it needs to solve a problem and the consequences for breaking the rules need to be appropriate.
The ban on cell phones in Allen County is necessary for security reasons. Officials don't want sensitive pictures or information to leave the courthouse via cell phones. The consequences, however, are taken to the extreme. About 25 phones have already been destroyed, regardless of the reasons for taking a phone into a restricted area.
Some of today's cell phones, smartphones and PDAs are investments that cost hundreds of dollars. Destroying cell phones that people accidentally bring into restricted areas is like flushing money down the toilet. In the case of Ball State students, losing such an investment would be devastating to already precarious budgets.
In courthouses, of all places, the punishment should fit the crime. Innocently bringing a typical, everyday item into a building shouldn't be grounds for losing hundreds of dollars. The cell phone ban might be necessary, but the consequences certainly are not.
Ball State officials can take a valuable lesson on what not to do from Allen County officials to ensure that future bans - and consequences - continue to be rational and appropriate.
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