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Document 1 of 1 HOW RELIABLE ARE BACKGROUND CHECKS? Series: VIOLENCE IN THE WORK PLACE Author: Debra Jasper Columbus Bureau Publication info: Dayton Daily News [Dayton, Ohio] 24 Mar 1997: 4.A. ProQuest document link Abstract (Abstract): KICKR} EMPLOYMENT SUBHED} * Despite measures to increase accuracy, agencies still say there's room for mistakes. The millions of background checks conducted for employment nationwide each year are supposed to indicate whether job applicants are law abiding, but the results can be deceptive. [Ted] Almay said the bureau now requires companies seeking background checks to submit applicants' fingerprints. But thousands of companies across the country still rely solely on names and Social Security numbers - a practice that dramatically increases the chance for error, he said. `How many Robert Smiths do you think we have back there?' Almay asked, pointing to a massive room at the agency's headquarters filled with 6 million criminal records in manila file folders. `A fingerprint check is the only way to positively identify someone. Without 10 inked fingerprints, we're playing a game. And there are too many holes in the system to be guessing.' Links: Check Document Availability Full text: KICKR} EMPLOYMENT SUBHED} * Despite measures to increase accuracy, agencies still say there's room for mistakes. The millions of background checks conducted for employment nationwide each year are supposed to indicate whether job applicants are law abiding, but the results can be deceptive. `It's outrageous, the amount of bad information and wrong information out there,' said Ted Almay, superintendent of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation in London. Almay said the bureau now requires companies seeking background checks to submit applicants' fingerprints. But thousands of companies across the country still rely solely on names and Social Security numbers - a practice that dramatically increases the chance for error, he said. `How many Robert Smiths do you think we have back there?' Almay asked, pointing to a massive room at the agency's headquarters filled with 6 million criminal records in manila file folders. `A fingerprint check is the only way to positively identify someone. Without 10 inked fingerprints, we're playing a game. And there are too many holes in the system to be guessing.' The `holes' stem in part from law enforcement's struggle to keep up with an overwhelming demand for criminal checks. With workplace violence on the rise - and negligent hiring lawsuits going up with it - schools, nursing homes, day-care centers and companies in record numbers use the checks to try to screen out potentially dangerous employees. Although a vast amount of information is available, it can't always be trusted, whether it comes from sheriffs' offices, state agencies or the FBI. Even with BCII's new multimillion-dollar, automated fingerprint system - billed as the `most powerful, accurate state-level system in the world' - Almay remains deeply concerned about reliability. `Our records are nowhere near as good as they need to be,' he said. `We've made great strides in the last two years. But we've still got a long way to go.' Background checks can be inaccurate for all kinds of reasons. Criminals might supply false information or officials might keep poor records, take down information incorrectly or mix up people with the same names. Reasons vary for inaccurate checks At the Montgomery County sheriff's office, for example, records might be incomplete for people arrested by Dayton before the city and county combined jail operations in the mid-1980s, said sheriff's Lt. Dan Pierron.

His office does about 700 background checks a week. Another problem is that criminal histories aren't treated equally, said Julie Davis, a Columbus attorney and privacy expert. People with resources and an understanding of the system often get records expunged, she said. `There are limits to it, but it's not that difficult.' Criminals who don't get their records expunged sometimes get their arrests attributed to someone else. That's what happened to Michael Loveless, a Dayton Public Schools teacher's aide who was suspended in February after being charged with providing marijuana to a juvenile. A check of Loveless' background turned up a prior drug abuse conviction, which was valid, and a conviction in Madison County for carrying a weapon under disability, which was not. Officials say another man arrested on the weapons charge used Loveless' name, Social Security number and birthdate when he pleaded guilty. The mistake wasn't uncovered until questions were raised about the man's true identity and officials sent his fingerprints to BCII. BCII has identified at least 300 criminals who used someone else's identity, officials said. Almay said Loveless is a classic case of what can happen when background checks are wrong. `Information released can be very damaging,' he said. `You might get good information (without doing fingerprints) but chances are it's bad.' Mary Lee Karle, a fraud investigator for Federated Department Stores, said many criminals attempt to take advantage of flaws in background-check systems. She said job applicants will give their maiden names, change digits in their Social Security numbers or say they are from counties where sheriffs' records aren't computerized. `It's amazing how many people will say they've lived in Dayton all their lives and then you find out they have a New York or Florida driver's license,' she said. `Sometimes, it's like finding a needle in a haystack.' Karle said Federated still prefers doing background checks with county sheriffs instead of statewide agencies because it wants records of misdemeanor convictions, such as petty theft. Those aren't usually available from BCII or Ohio Professional Electronic Network (OPEN), a private computer search service in Ohio, which only supply felony records. Both OPEN and BCII create their databases from information provided by county sheriffs. Ohio Deputy Attorney General Mark Weaver said his office has been frustrated with the quality of information coming from the counties. `Our criminal records' database is still not accurate due to the fact that we get various amounts of compliance from the 88 counties,' he said. Still, he said, the system is improving. In a squat, brick building in London surrounded by cornfields, BCII's rooms are jammed with lab equipment and rows of computers with names such as `Bonnie,' `Clyde' and, of course, the X-File's `Mulder.' The computers hold 900,000 fingerprint and criminal history records. In the next three years, that's expected to top 1.2 million records. Almay said some people touring the building stare at the boxes and desks crammed into corners and `wonder how anybody's fingerprints get checked around here.' But he quickly added that changes are taking place. The bureau's budget has increased from $12.5 million to $18.3 million since 1995, with much of the money going toward updating DNA programs and equipment. This month, ground is being broken for a new, $14 million building. And by 1998, with the help of a $7 million federal grant, Almay expects the bureau's records to be 95 percent accurate. `We're ahead of most states but are we 95 percent accurate now? No,' he said. `Eighty-five percent? Maybe. Seventy-five percent? Gee, I hope we're better than that.' While state and local background checks may be flawed, companies have few other options if they want to investigate potential employees' criminal histories.

The country's only national criminal database belongs to the FBI, which only does checks for businesses if mandated by law. Even then, the FBI has data from just 38 states and companies must often wait three months for results. Martha Wright, chief of the User Services Bureau in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said her department is a strong advocate of the FBI opening its records. The agency could give companies information that would prevent workplace violence, she said. `If you hire somebody in Ohio with a clean record, how do you know they didn't just go up to Michigan and assault someone?' she asked. Richard Emmons, a Dayton-area private investigator, said access to a national database would make his job a lot easier, but he isn't convinced that opening the FBI database is a good idea. `If I'm running a school, there are certain things I should do to make sure those people in my charge aren't predators or child molesters. That's public information and it should be known,' Emmons said. `But we also have to balance privacy issues. We don't need Big Brother out there, where somebody can find out every traffic ticket you've gotten.' Records can be mishandled, altered Law enforcement records aren't always accurate, but neither is the information submitted by companies, Emmons said. He said he almost didn't get a loan once because the bank mixed up his Social Security number with that of another man who had a federal tax lien and two civil court judgments against him. `People think that those are the kinds of things that happen to other people,' Emmons said. `But it can happen to them.' Records can also be altered by the job applicants. Maggie Buechner, records manager for the Franklin County sheriff's office, said the department does about 2,000 background checks a week for companies - some of whom allow potential employees to pick up their own records. Managers have told her of instances where workers took their criminal record to a photocopy store and replaced the bottom half of the form, which lists their arrests, with the bottom half of a clean record. Since arrest records are public in Ohio, people can get a clean record by requesting a friend's background, Buechner said. And with color copiers, people can even reproduce the official stamp that says "no record" in red ink. `It is amazing, but I'd never thought about it until we had (business) people come back and show me,' Buechner said. Delayed results hurt the system Reliability isn't the only big problem with background checks. Even when results are accurate, companies must sometimes wait months to get them. John Saulitis, who works for a state-funded program that investigates complaints involving care for the elderly, said such waits pose serious problems for nursing homes and other employers. An Ohio law that went into effect Jan. 27 requires all employees who work with the elderly to undergo background checks through BCII. Out-of-state applicants must be checked out by the FBI - a process that can take months because of backlogs. The law stipulates that if employers don't get results in 60 days, they must terminate the worker until they receive the records. `You could have a completely clean record but if the FBI can't produce a record fast enough, (employers) have to let you go,' Saulitis said. Even BCII checks - which take about a month - are too slow for Karle, the investigator for Federated. She said Lazarus department stores hire 1,700 people to work during the Christmas season and can't wait a month to get results. The workers would `be here and gone already,' she said.

Wright, the chief of the Florida law enforcement agency, which does almost 1 million checks a year, said her state is way ahead of Ohio. Unlike Ohio, companies do not have to have consent forms and fingerprints to get Florida's law enforcement agency to conduct a background check. Companies that make their requests via computer get responses within two working days. Otherwise, it takes about two weeks. Almay said BCII is trying to shorten its response to two weeks, but it won't be easy - even though in February the agency doubled the staff conducting records checks for businesses from 12 to 24 people. He said the law requiring checks for anyone dealing with the elderly is expected to increase the number of checks done this year by 93,000, and there are no signs of a slow down. `We're doing so many checks it's causing us operational issues,' Almay said. `I'm questioning how long it will be before AFIS (the fingerprint computer) is maxed out.' Almay also worries that despite improvements in technology, mistakes can happen in an agency doing hundreds of thousands of checks each year. `Let's say we're 99 percent accurate. Would that be good enough?' he asked. `Even with most advanced system in the world, you've got to wonder.' Publication title: Dayton Daily News Pages: 4.A Number of pages: 0 Publication year: 1997 Publication date: Mar 24, 1997 Year: 1997 Section: NEWS Publisher: CMG Corporate Services, Inc. on behalf of itself and the Newspapers Place of publication: Dayton, Ohio Country of publication: United States Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States ISSN: 08970920 Source type: Newspapers Language of publication: English Document type: NEWSPAPER ProQuest document ID: 254046541 Document URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/254046541?accountid=458 Copyright: Copyright Dayton Newspapers Inc. Mar 24, 1997 Last updated: 2013-04-08 Database: ProQuest Central

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