Background checks can be improved

by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles and Scott Smith

There is no responsibility legislators and law enforcement officials take more seriously than protecting the young and vulnerable.

While we believe that most people who work with these groups are trustworthy and caring, we have heard the often tragic stories of abuse committed by those whose criminal backgrounds did not come to light until too late.

While safeguards have been in place for years, they have not stopped the hurt. And it's been expensive for the state to defend itself against lawsuits.

Statutes give authority to law enforcement agencies, the attorney general, prosecuting authorities and the Department of Social and Health Services to request background checks to help prosecute cases of abuse involving a child or vulnerable adult. Businesses and organizations, including school districts, can request criminal background checks on a prospective employee.

As members of the Joint Task Force on Criminal Background Check Processes, we spent the past 18 months exploring how to improve our background check laws. Through experts, we learned several important facts.

The first is that getting good information takes money: A fingerprint-based background check is more expensive and time-consuming to process than a standard name and date-of-birth one. But it provides positive verification or non-verification of criminal history.

We learned how easy it can be to obtain information. Presently, all it takes is a computer, Internet connection and name and date of birth to access someone's state criminal history record of convictions. But similar information from other states isn't so easily available to the public.

Because abusers come from other states, we learned it makes sense to check databases outside Washington. The Washington State Patrol must make the request through the FBI -- based on fingerprints and at a cost.

Perhaps the most eye-opening lesson of all: Offenses committed by workers after they have been hired may go unknown to their employers unless re-checks are conducted.

The task force's recommendations to provide greater protections will take some time and resources but are vital to personal safety.

To start, we need to ratify the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact, though this will be expensive. Participating states agree to maintain detailed, accurate and complete criminal histories for immediate response to requests for non-criminal justice purposes, such as background checks for prospective teachers or coaches.

We should require fingerprint-based background checks of all school employees, including custodial and secretarial staff. Children should be safe with everyone they come into significant contact with at school and on the playing fields.

To allow state agencies seamless access to the same resources and pool of information for all background checks for non-criminal justice purposes, we need to create a clearinghouse. Then re-checks could be conducted that would automatically flag new arrests.

And while costly, we should consider requiring fingerprint checks on all child-care workers and foster parents, following completion of a study of the financial implications.

These steps will take us in the right direction.

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles represents the 36th District. Scott Smith is chief of the Mountlake Terrace Police Department. Also contributing to the column were Sen. Dale Brandland of the 42nd District and Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson of the 36th District.

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