iSpy: City Controller unveils program for mobiles to report bad city workers

WANT TO WORK as an undercover spy fighting government misconduct?

Just strap on your iPhone.

City Controller Alan Butkovitz yesterday unveiled an iPhone app that allows citizens to report fraud or government misconduct directly to the controller's fraud unit.

"Our Philly WatchDog app allows citizens to play a crucial role in protecting their tax dollars by reporting fraud, waste and abuse," Butkovitz said during a news conference.

Using the application, available for free through iTunes or the App Store on the iPhone, residents can report sightings of fraud or city workers goofing off and send in pictures or videos. Messages can be sent anonymously.

Butkovitz said that the app, which the office developed for $5,400, is the first of its kind in the nation. Butkovitz and his staff said that residents might capture examples of bribery by city workers, or city workers napping on taxpayers' time.

The office gets between 75 and 100 such reports from citizens each year, but the app certainly could boost that number.

Butkovitz credited aide Brian Dries with devising the idea.

"It was another idea of 'how can we get citizens in Philadelphia to report fraud?' " said Dries. "Right now, iPhone technology is the way to go."

Dries said that the office would look into developing similar applications for other types of smartphones.

Are city workers quaking in their boots? Cathy Scott, president of District Council 47 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents city white-collar workers, said that she hadn't heard of the app but that she thought that citizens could already report fraud easily with cellphone cameras.

"There's all kinds of mechanisms in the city to report if people think there's something improper going on," Scott said. "I don't see this as any different from any other method people can use to report waste or fraud."

Still, Zack Stalberg, president of the watchdog group Committee of Seventy, said he thought the app was a good idea.

"Anything that will help drive more government efficiency is a positive thing," Stalberg said. "I can imagine a lot of people who might not pick up the phone or be able to document waste or misconduct would now do it."

Stalberg noted that another group that might report waste would be city workers.

"They know whether their boss is off drinking or not," he said, but he questioned whether the city had sufficient whistle-blower protections to cover that population.

Whistle-blowers are offered protection under state law, according to the city. Chief Integrity Officer Joan Markman said the administration would be reviewing that issue at a city level. And First Deputy City Controller Harvey Rice said the office has received complaints from city workers and has always kept their identities anonymous.