The Virginia Association of Counties wants a FOIA exemption so cell phone numbers of law enforcement are not made public, even though the phones are paid for with taxpayers' funds.

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors asked for the exemption after Leesburg Today requested all cell phone numbers of sheriff's deputies.

"We don't think the cell phone numbers of the deputies should be public information because they're going to be out on the job and we don't want their cell phones going off when they're investigating a crime," said Memory Porter, lobbyist for the county government.

Because the phones are paid for with taxpayers' funds and deputies are not in their offices for any length of time, the cell phone "is in fact their office," the Virginia Press Association's Ginger Stanley said.

"These phones are the communication link to these officers 99 percent of the time so they'd be hampering our ability to get through to these public servants," she said.

The numbers of undercover cops can be kept confidential under existing law, in the opinion of Maria Everett, executive director of the FOI Advisory Council. Otherwise, "in the training sessions I do with law enforcement, I tell them that a listing of cell phone numbers is open if requested," she said.

The Loudoun sheriff's office has 137 cell phones. Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson said releasing the public numbers could interfere with police duties. He also said many deputies carry personal cell phones that are on the same numbers list as the public cell phones. If the personal numbers were separated from the cell phone list, Simpson said he would have less of a problem with the request.

"The concern I would (still) have is people would be calling these deputies at all hours in the day and night asking them questions," Simpson said.

"They have their voicemail at work. I just don't see the reason why a phone number would need to be released like that."