Friday, October 28, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Public Records - Legal Action Dealing with Access
Oswego, NY -- An Oswego business owner is in the process of suing
Oswego County Clerk George Williams, contending he is breaking the law
concerning searches of public documents at the clerk’s office.
Aaron P. Smith, owner of APS Information Services, says Williams does not allow the public to search Oswego County Court and Supreme Court indices, which include names and disposition of criminal cases. He said Williams has his employees perform the searches so he can charge fees.
Smith, who has been in the document search business for 16 years, said of the six counties in which he does business, Oswego is the only one where the clerk operates this way.Smith works for national background-screening companies charged with making criminal background checks of people, who for instance are applying for jobs, renting apartments or working on military contracts. He does searches in Onondaga, Oswego, Jefferson, Erie, Niagara and Monroe counties.
Oswego County Attorney Richard Mitchell said Williams has not yet been served paperwork regarding the lawsuit. Smith’s lawyer, Scott Chatfield, of Marietta, said the case will be argued Nov. 10 in state Supreme Court in Utica. Chatfield quoted an opinion issued by Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, that says state regulations “have specified that when records are accessible, they must be made available for inspection, and that an agency cannot charge for the inspection of records.”
“Only when copies of records are requested are fees charged,” Chatfield said.
Smith said if he goes to one of the other five counties to search a criminal index on a subject, he would do the search himself, get the information he needs and leave. In Oswego County, Smith would not be able to search the subject’s criminal index by himself. A county clerk’s office employee would do the search and then charge Smith $5 for each two-year period searched.
Smith said he spends from $2,500 to $6,800 a month for searches in the Oswego County Clerk’s office. That is a cost he incurs in no other clerk’s office.
“It’s extortion,” Smith said. “He’s creating this revenue stream for the county and then walking in and saying ‘look how wonderful I am.”
Deputy County Clerk Georgiana Mansfield said Williams had no comment on the legal action.
In a letter to Smith’s lawyer dated Oct. 11, Mitchell said “although you contend your client is prevented from using the County Clerk’s office, that does not appear to be the case.
"Williams has faced some controversy of late stemming from hiring a company to manage county documents.The county Ethics Board investigated him twice.
Once was to determine if he was an employee of Info Quick Solutions, of Clay, one of the companies interested in the document management contract. It is owned by a friend of Williams. He was found not to be employed by IQS.The other involved Williams and his deputy clerk for operations eating at a Fulton restaurant with IQS representatives right after presentations by IQS and other potential vendors were made to the legislative committee. The board found that while Williams and his deputy did not break any laws, dining with the IQS personnel constituted “an appearance of impropriety.” The FBI also has been examining the relationship between the county clerk’s office and IQS and has subpoenaed 10 years’ worth of county clerk records.
Aaron P. Smith, owner of APS Information Services, says Williams does not allow the public to search Oswego County Court and Supreme Court indices, which include names and disposition of criminal cases. He said Williams has his employees perform the searches so he can charge fees.
Smith, who has been in the document search business for 16 years, said of the six counties in which he does business, Oswego is the only one where the clerk operates this way.Smith works for national background-screening companies charged with making criminal background checks of people, who for instance are applying for jobs, renting apartments or working on military contracts. He does searches in Onondaga, Oswego, Jefferson, Erie, Niagara and Monroe counties.
Oswego County Attorney Richard Mitchell said Williams has not yet been served paperwork regarding the lawsuit. Smith’s lawyer, Scott Chatfield, of Marietta, said the case will be argued Nov. 10 in state Supreme Court in Utica. Chatfield quoted an opinion issued by Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, that says state regulations “have specified that when records are accessible, they must be made available for inspection, and that an agency cannot charge for the inspection of records.”
“Only when copies of records are requested are fees charged,” Chatfield said.
Smith said if he goes to one of the other five counties to search a criminal index on a subject, he would do the search himself, get the information he needs and leave. In Oswego County, Smith would not be able to search the subject’s criminal index by himself. A county clerk’s office employee would do the search and then charge Smith $5 for each two-year period searched.
Smith said he spends from $2,500 to $6,800 a month for searches in the Oswego County Clerk’s office. That is a cost he incurs in no other clerk’s office.
“It’s extortion,” Smith said. “He’s creating this revenue stream for the county and then walking in and saying ‘look how wonderful I am.”
Deputy County Clerk Georgiana Mansfield said Williams had no comment on the legal action.
In a letter to Smith’s lawyer dated Oct. 11, Mitchell said “although you contend your client is prevented from using the County Clerk’s office, that does not appear to be the case.
"Williams has faced some controversy of late stemming from hiring a company to manage county documents.The county Ethics Board investigated him twice.
Once was to determine if he was an employee of Info Quick Solutions, of Clay, one of the companies interested in the document management contract. It is owned by a friend of Williams. He was found not to be employed by IQS.The other involved Williams and his deputy clerk for operations eating at a Fulton restaurant with IQS representatives right after presentations by IQS and other potential vendors were made to the legislative committee. The board found that while Williams and his deputy did not break any laws, dining with the IQS personnel constituted “an appearance of impropriety.” The FBI also has been examining the relationship between the county clerk’s office and IQS and has subpoenaed 10 years’ worth of county clerk records.
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Charge: Worker Used DMV computers for ID Theft
A former clerk at the North Carolina
Division of Motor Vehicles is facing 18 charges, including five counts
of identity theft, in a state probe that has spanned more than a year.The State Bureau of Investigation
began looking at Kimberly Nicole Torres, 36, of 102 Indian Trail in
Wendell, in January 2010 after copies of driver's licenses and Social
Security cards were found in her desk.She was fired a month later, and Steve
Abbott, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said
she did not steal any personal information from the state.
Torres was arrested Friday and was in the Wake County jail under a $275,000 bond Monday evening. Search warrants allege that she used a DMV computer to apply for payday loans in other people's names.Once the loans were deposited into bank accounts, she told investigators, she would withdraw the money, take a cut and close the account.If convicted on the identity theft charge, as well as several charges of obtaining property by false pretense and accessing government computers to defraud and forgery, she could face up to 27 years in prison.
"She didn't have access to anything work-wise, anything DMV – such as personal records, drivers' license. She had no access to that," Abbott said.
It's unclear where Torres might have gotten the Social Security cards and driver's licenses.According to court records, Torres has a lengthy criminal history, including several convictions prior to being hired by the state for assault with a deadly weapon and breaking and entering.
DMV employees are required to have a background check, Abbot said, but because Torres was hired by the DOT, a check never happened.
"We do not do background checks. It's not just DOT, it is all state agencies," Abbott said. "There is no background check required unless it's a job that would require access to private information, access to money or other issues like that."
Torres was arrested Friday and was in the Wake County jail under a $275,000 bond Monday evening. Search warrants allege that she used a DMV computer to apply for payday loans in other people's names.Once the loans were deposited into bank accounts, she told investigators, she would withdraw the money, take a cut and close the account.If convicted on the identity theft charge, as well as several charges of obtaining property by false pretense and accessing government computers to defraud and forgery, she could face up to 27 years in prison.
"She didn't have access to anything work-wise, anything DMV – such as personal records, drivers' license. She had no access to that," Abbott said.
It's unclear where Torres might have gotten the Social Security cards and driver's licenses.According to court records, Torres has a lengthy criminal history, including several convictions prior to being hired by the state for assault with a deadly weapon and breaking and entering.
DMV employees are required to have a background check, Abbot said, but because Torres was hired by the DOT, a check never happened.
"We do not do background checks. It's not just DOT, it is all state agencies," Abbott said. "There is no background check required unless it's a job that would require access to private information, access to money or other issues like that."
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
California Joins Other States in Placing Restriction on Employers' Use of Credit Checks
One Minute Memo: California Joins Other States in Placing Restrictions
on Employers' Use of Credit Checks
On October 10, 2011, Governor Brown signed into legislation Assembly
Bill No. 22, which generally prohibits employers from using an
applicant's or employee's credit history in making employment decisions.
Prior to this legislation, employers could request a credit report for
employment purposes if they provided prior written notice of the request
to the person for whom the report was sought. Assembly Bill 22
significantly changes this landscape by prohibiting employers from using
credit reports for employment purposes unless the report is used for one
of the limited purposes enumerated by the statute.
To view the full alert, please click on the link below:
www.seyfarth.com/OMM101011/
on Employers' Use of Credit Checks
On October 10, 2011, Governor Brown signed into legislation Assembly
Bill No. 22, which generally prohibits employers from using an
applicant's or employee's credit history in making employment decisions.
Prior to this legislation, employers could request a credit report for
employment purposes if they provided prior written notice of the request
to the person for whom the report was sought. Assembly Bill 22
significantly changes this landscape by prohibiting employers from using
credit reports for employment purposes unless the report is used for one
of the limited purposes enumerated by the statute.
To view the full alert, please click on the link below:
www.seyfarth.com/OMM101011/
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
"Statewide Background Checks Miss Records"
Many
companies think that a statewide background check is more complete than
searching the counties that an applicant has lived and/or worked. "In
some cases, that is not correct." Bill Whitford, CEO of S2Verify.
"Many states are not on a unified court system and rely on the county to
report the records to the state. However, in many instances, this
simply does not happen."
It is important to understand each state and then determine if a statewide is the best search. That is why companies need to contract with knowledgable and experienced Employment Screening companies, like S2Verify. We are amazed at the lack of knowledge among prospects about what they are ordering and how it impacts their business.
In one instance, one of our competitors was selling statewide searches and using a database. However, they weren't informing the company that this was a database search. In fact, they were offering a statewide search in states like CA that don't offer a statewide search.
Here is an article that proves you need to be knowledgeable about each state.
It is important to understand each state and then determine if a statewide is the best search. That is why companies need to contract with knowledgable and experienced Employment Screening companies, like S2Verify. We are amazed at the lack of knowledge among prospects about what they are ordering and how it impacts their business.
In one instance, one of our competitors was selling statewide searches and using a database. However, they weren't informing the company that this was a database search. In fact, they were offering a statewide search in states like CA that don't offer a statewide search.
Here is an article that proves you need to be knowledgeable about each state.
Texas background checks let felons slip through cracks in surprising numbers
September 29, 2011
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Courts and prosecutors throughout Texas are supposed to quickly submit convictions for arson, burglary, and more serious crimes but the report by the Texas Auditor's office finds more than a-quarter of the arrests are not showing up on state background checks because local police agencies and county courthouses are not sending that data to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
That means if one felon is convicted, the state database won't include it for months because the local police and courthouses are letting it sit on a shelf for months before sending it to the state to be included in the DPS crime database.
That means if that criminal is applying for a job driving a school bus, or trying to enter the military service, or applying for another sensitive security position, a background check won't show the conviction because the most comprehensive statewide crime database doesn't know about it.
Most background checks, especially those by private employers and small government agencies, do not check records at the local level. They won't scour every single courthouse where an applicant has lived, but instead rely on each state's centralized database of all criminal convictions.
Local police and sheriff's departments are also required to submit information for arrests made for certain crimes, even if the person hasn't been convicted yet. Those are among the crimes not being reported to the state, according to this report.
Today's audito report digs into all arrests made statewide in 2009 and it found that more than a-quarter of the crimes had still not been reported to Texas DPS as of January of this year.
In a February 2006 audit, 71-percent of the crimes were being reported by prosecutors and courts. This time around, those agencies reported 73.68 percent of the arrests made in 2009. That's only a slight improvement.
The audit explains,
"Data in the DPS's Computerized Criminal History System is not complete, and users may not receive a reliable result from criminal history background checks that are conducted based on the data in that system."Even though Texas law requires prosecutors and courts to send that data in within weeks, DPS has no authority to slap a fine or any other punishment for agencies that are letting its criminal convictions sit on the shelves for months or years.
"A significant number of prosecutor and court records are not reported to DPS, which impairs the quality of information that DPS uses to conduct criminal history background checks,"the report continued.
Here's a serious illustration of how bad it is:
State background checks are standard when a new inmate arrives in the state prison system, but when 1,634 inmates showed up for prison or probation in November 2010, they had clean records.
That's right, convicted felons on their way into prison were listed as having no criminal record in the state DPS crime database because the local authorities hadn't yet submitted the information as they're required to do within days.
Some are required to be submitted within 7-days and others must be submitted within 30-days, but it's not always happening at all.
Today's report urges DPS to improve the timeliness and accuracy of the records it receives from local authorities, but it didn't say how that should happen since DPS is powerless to issue fines or any other sanctions for it.
The Tarrant County District Attorney's office is listed as failing to submit records, and the report points out that the Harris County District Attorney's Office and the Harris County District Clerk are also both falling short on submitting details of cases to the state crime database.
Each office said the reason this is happening is because some criminals don't have state identification numbers attached to their records, which causes them to slip through the cracks. If the state ID number is attached at booking or later before trial, they are automatically sent in when there is a conviction or other disposition. If that number is missing, it just doesn't happen like it's supposed to, they said.
They also blamed courts for failing to submit some paperwork about the disposition of some cases. Without that paperwork, those agencies don't know there's anything additional to report to the state.
Between September 1, 2009 and November 30, 2010, there were 65,424 arrest records submitted to DPS that could not be properly matched with their crimes or the outcomes of their cases. That means an arrest may be listed without a conviction, or even that a person may be listed as having one charge against them when they really had 5 serious charges against them.
For those 65,424 incomplete records, the audit says local agencies submitted erroneous data or incomplete data for felonies and misdemeanor crimes. Those all affect how a person shows up on a criminal background check.
DPS agreed with the findings of the audit and promised to work on holding meetings with local government officials throughout Texas to make sure they know how to submit timely and accurate data on crimes.
About 80% of the information is being submitted to the state electronically, while the rest are mailed or faxed.
The audit listed these hard numbers between September 1, 2009 and November 30, 2010:
- Of the 1,115,469 of the crimes that were required to be reported within 7-days, 84.25% actually were (amounting to 939,802 crimes)
- Of the 959,892 crimes that can be reported within 30-days, 76.48% were reported (or 734,138 crimes).
Even when local police and prosecutors do submit the arrest or conviction information, DPS is sometimes reporting a two-month backlog in entering the data into the database if it comes by mail or fax. Staffing and budget cuts are getting the blame.
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