Background checks may not tell the whole story
By RACHEL STREITFELD
Staff Writer
COSHOCTON - Last month, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents walked into the new Wal-Mart Supercenter and peaceably arrested an employee for his role in a grisly 12-year-old murder. Arlington Johnson, of Washington, D.C., landed a job at Wal-Mart despite FBI suspicions of a violent past. The arres raises concerns about the effectiveness of hiring procedures in weeding out potential criminals.
Johnson's case serves as a stark warning to area employers that a resume and a list of references may not give the whole story on a job applicant. Even when employers give individuals background checks, criminals can still slip through the cracks.
Wal-Mart gives all new employees background checks through local, state and national databases, said spokespersonSharon Weber. A manager at the Wal-Mart Supercenter here would not comment on the arrest of Arlington last month.
The sheriff's office can perform three different background checks. A free local check will bring up any convictions in Coshocton County. A check through the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCII) will yield any convictions in the state, and an FBI check works nationwide.
Doug Owens, employer representative at Jobs and Family Services, said the services are widely utilized.
"I don't know of any companies that don't do a background check," Owens said. "Most of them do background checks as well as other tests like drug screenings."
Owens said "well over" 1,000 people applied to work at the new Wal-Mart Supercenter, which opened last month. The company managed the hiring for the store in-house, using JFS only as an interview site. But even the most thorough of background checks could have left the company in the dark about Johnson's criminal charges.
"As far as the Wal-Mart situation, if that person didn't put down that he was a criminal and had a criminal background, which most people wouldn't ... if he hadn't been convicted of a crime, then he wouldn't show up (as a criminal on the background check) even if he had been charged," Owens said.
A background check does not bring up incidents that were never reported, or even charges that were not followed up by a conviction. And if the police only perform a local check, someone who committed a crime in a city as near as Zanesville would not show up as a criminal unless there was a warrant out for his arrest.
"You come in from out of town and nobody knows you, so they just take you at your word," said Capt. Jon Mosier from the sheriff's office. "If you're local, it's a little bit easier for a shopkeeper because they may already know you, know your family."
For these situations, Mosier said, an employer may rely on a gut feeling in making hiring decisions.
"Not only do you need that record check sometimes, you also need that sixth sense to hire people," he said. "If they do have a record, do you want to hire them anyway?"
Mosier said few companies in the area consult the sheriff's office before hiring new employees. When the office does run background checks, he said companies often are checking on applications they find suspect, or to learn more specifics about the crime an individual has committed.
But sometimes companies have no idea their new employee has a record.
"I'm surprised at how many people get hired who are criminals,"Mosier said. "For example, they're thieves. And they get hired without a background check and then at work they're handling money."
The sheriff's office performs most of the checks on individuals who will work with children, the disabled or the elderly. In Ohio, child care and health care workers are required by law to take the state-wide BCII background check. No one with a history of child abuse or other violent crimes can own or work for a child care facility.
At Precious Treasures, a day care facility in West Lafayette, every employee must take a background check and come up clean before being hired.
"We do it because they're working with children," said Jessica Bates, a teacher at Precious Treasures. "Just to make sure they don't have any sex offenses or assaults or abuse or anything like that in their background."
At Hopewell School for children with disabilities, everyone from secretaries to teachers to janitors must be cleared with a background check.
"Anyone that steps foot in this building that's employed by us, whether it's by contract or not, we're required to give them the BCII background check," said Hopewell Business Manager Jill Lahna.
Wes Enlow, human resources manager at Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation, said background checks were "absolutely" a part of the company's hiring process.
"We make a person an offer contingent upon successfully completing a background check, a physical screening and a drug test," Enlow said.
Enlow said the checks were necessary because employees "may have outstanding warrants."
rstreitfeld@nncogannett.com
295-3452
Originally published July 19, 2005
Story taken from the following website: http://www.centralohio.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/B9/20050719/NEWS01/507190304/1002&template=B9
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