PI Newswire

Please find the top 25 news stories, current events, professional opinion and insights aggregated by PI Newswire for the week ending January 22, 2012. As always there are many great articles ranging from the bizarre to educational with everything else in-between. We encourage you to comment and share your thoughts, opinions and experiences. Enjoy, have a wonderful week & stay safe!

Vote NO on HB 1006!! http://bit.ly/yJx5ic

Anonymous Goes on Megaupload Revenge Spree: DoJ, RIAA, MPAA, and Universal Music All
Offline http://bit.ly/xS7Rnx

Free Software Blocks Keyloggers by Encrypting Keystrokes http://bit.ly/xmZZ7y

Cops: Jailed man smuggled gun in rectum http://bit.ly/z626A9

Do Women Cheat As Much As Men Do? http://bit.ly/AlRlNB

Man wants a job with FBI, instead gets 80 months in jail for child pornography http://bit.ly/wHnSZd

Controversy – but no charges – for coroner, private investigator for soliciting 17 year old autistic boy http://bit.ly/xLbNIP

The ‘toys’ that let you spy on the neighbours – new ‘Wi-Spi’ helicopter and ‘Intruder’ car offer hi-tech surveillance http://bit.ly/zUPrfb

Hidden Camera Inside Houston Precinct 1 Sheds Light on Police Probe http://bit.ly/wkHIIt

Should You Be Able To Sue Your Spouse’s Lover? http://bit.ly/AuTJnb

Eight officers resign over illegal searches of dozens of people using police files http://bit.ly/yt33hq

65 Year Old Woman Gets on Plane With Handgun in Purse: Passengers Furious With TSA http://bit.ly/wcwjuj

Forensic Apps for First Responders http://bit.ly/zdHZQE

Process Server Serves Lawsuit on Lindsay Lohan for Helping Kill Osama Bin Laden http://bit.ly/yujVu7

Air bag DNA foils insurance scam http://bit.ly/xwecQR

‘Boot up the backside camp’: Training female bodyguards Chinese style http://bit.ly/A0JiQ3

Background checks encouraged for online dating http://bit.ly/A5BN2G

NSA constructs hardened Android with super-spook mobile OS, available to the world http://bit.ly/yRyVHn

JP Morgan Chase Process Server Unable to Serve OJ Simpson Foreclosure Papers http://bit.ly/x7mhjq

Pepsi Pays 3 Million: EEOC Finds Hiring Discrimination against African Americans with Background Check Policy http://bit.ly/A1xShi

Police, Private Investigator Unable to Locate Missing Saudi Chemical Engineering Student Studying in Canada http://bit.ly/zlNdlr

Sex, spies and Mounties: the poisoned culture of the RCMP’s `Special O’ surveillance squad http://bit.ly/xTvefn

Ashton Kutcher Foursquare hack witnessed by millions of Twitter users http://bit.ly/zvLN4O

Bail Bondman & ‘Beat Down Posse’ leader convicted of racketeering and more http://bit.ly/xkLh1S

Google Abandons Anonymous Accounts With New Signup Form http://bit.ly/wRTEbJ

A report has found workplace fraud is costing Canada’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at least $3.2 billion a year – probably much more – and is hurting employee morale, just as the authors of the report say the problem is growing.

About 290,000 SMEs were victims of one or more instances of work-place fraud in the past year, says a Certified General Accountants Association of Canada (CGA-Canada) study.

Tim Houghton, vice-president of risk solutions for CKR Global Risk Solutions in Calgary, says 75 per cent of all employee-related crimes – theft, fraud, assaults and others – go unnoticed.

Houghton says a company is 15 times more likely to have an employee steal from an employer versus a non-employee. “If you consider that 75 per cent (of all crimes) go unreported, then that $3.2 billion is actually a quarter of the actual loss,” he says.

“It has a huge impact, both financially and non-financially, for most (SMEs).”

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An Elementary School janitor who was arrested after a drug round up by police agencies had avoided undergoing any background checks by the Beaumont Independent School District (BISD) that may have uncovered past drug charges because he was hired prior to 2008, according to a report from KMBT 12 News in Beaumont, Texas.

12 News reports that the janitor had been previously arrested six times on misdemeanor drug charges of possession of marijuana since 2000. Officers also found marijuana on the janitor during the arrest, a violation of BISD policy that forbids any employee to possess, distribute, or use any illegal drugs on school property. Since the janitor was found with drugs in a drug-free zone, the charges could be upgraded to a felony.

12 News reports that the BISD employee handbook for 2011-2012 states any non-certified employee who is not a teacher – including janitors – hired prior to January 1, 2008 did not have to receive a background check. 12 News reports the janitor – who was hired part-time in 1998 and full-time in 2001 – has been suspended pending the results of the investigation. The 12 News story is available at: http://www.12newsnow.com/story/16551081/parents.

This case is an example why employers should run background checks on all employees and not just those hired after a certain date. It also shows why re-screening of current employees with background checks is sometimes necessary to ensure a safe, drug-free workplace.

For more information on background checks, visit Employment Screening Resources (ESR) – ‘The Background Check Authority’ and nationwide background screening firm accredited by the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) – at http://www.esrcheck.com/ or call ESR tolls free at 888.999.4474.

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The destruction of millions of old federal court records is well under way after a judicial committee last year said it was “cleaning house,” a move estimated to save millions of dollars but one that has raised sharp concerns in the private-security industry.

The National Archives says no criminal case files are being destroyed yet, pending final approval, but millions of old civil cases have been destroyed and bankruptcy cases are now heading to the shredder. Archivists say docket sheets that include names of parties and the outcome of cases will be preserved.

Still, Peter Psarouthakis, chairman of the trade group Investigative and Security Professionals for Legislative Action, said the loss of so many court records would hurt the ability of companies to conduct background checks, including those on people applying for government security clearances.

“All of a sudden, you’re taking away a huge section of public records and making them go away forever,” said Mr. Psarouthakis, president of Michigan-based EWI & Associates. “It’s catastrophic what they’re doing here.”

The trade group recently told its members in a website posting that the policy will “seriously” hamper background checks on litigants, potential business partners and prospective employees.

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Following an investigation by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Pepsi Beverages has agreed to pay $3.13 million and make major policy changes by providing job offers and training to resolve a charge of nationwide hiring discrimination against African Americans with criminal background checks, according to a press release from the EEOC website. The Commission found that the criminal background check policy formerly used by Pepsi discriminated against African Americans in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and most of the monetary settlement will primarily be divided among black applicants for positions at Pepsi.

The investigation by the EEOC – the agency of the U.S. Government that enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination – revealed that more than 300 African Americans were adversely affected when Pepsi applied a criminal background check policy that disproportionately excluded black applicants from permanent employment. Pepsi’s former criminal background check policy denied job applicants who had been arrested pending prosecution a chance to be hired for a permanent job even if they had never been convicted of any offense. Pepsi’s former policy also denied employment to applicants who had been arrested or convicted of certain minor offenses.

During the course of the EEOC’s investigation, Pepsi adopted a new criminal background check policy. In addition to the $3.13 million in monetary relief, Pepsi will:

Offer employment opportunities to victims of the former criminal background check policy who still want jobs at Pepsi and are qualified for the jobs for which they apply.
Supply the EEOC with regular reports on its hiring practices under its new criminal background check policy.
Conduct Title VII training for its hiring personnel and all of its managers.

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the use of arrest and conviction records to deny employment can be illegal when it is not relevant for the job since it can limit the employment opportunities of applicants or workers based on their race or ethnicity. The EEOC has guidance and policy statements on the use of arrest and conviction records in employment that makes the use of a blanket “no hire” policy that excludes job applicants with criminal records unlawful under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 since it discriminates against minority groups with higher rates of criminal convictions.

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The use – and, in some cases, misuse – of criminal background checks of job applicants by employers, a practice which has come under greater scrutiny of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), has topped the fifth annual Employment Screening Resources ‘Top 10 Trends in Background Checks’ for 2012. For the past five years, Attorney Lester Rosen, founder and CEO of Employment Screening Resources (ESR) – ‘The Background Check Authority(SM)’ and nationwide background screening firm accredited by the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) – has compiled a list featuring emerging and influential trends in employment screening background checks for employers.
“Although the EEOC’s concern over criminal background checks of applicants was the number one trend for 2012, employers need to be aware of several other developments, including the increased regulations of credit report checks, the controversial use of social media background checks, and screening automation leading to both increased efficiency and risks,” says Rosen, a recognized background check expert and author of ‘The Safe Hiring Manual,’ a comprehensive employment screening guide for employers. For 2012, Rosen has selected the following Ten Top Trends in Background Checks:

Number 1 – Criminal Background Checks of Job Applicants by Employers Coming Under Greater Scrutiny by EEOC

With a recent survey showing nine out of ten employers conduct criminal background checks on some or all job candidates, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) held a public meeting in July 2011 examining the use of arrest and conviction records by employers for criminal background checks to determine if the practice was an unfair and discriminatory hiring barrier to job seeking ex-offenders. The EEOC’s actions, coupled with the growing “Ban the Box” movement seeking to remove the criminal history question from job applications, shows that employer use of criminal records is under fire now more than ever. Read more about Trend Number 1 of the Employment Screening Resources Top 10 Trends in Background Checks for 2012.

Number 2 – Credit Report Background Checks of Job Applicants by Employers Increasingly Regulated by State Laws

In recent years, several U.S. states have passed laws regulating the use of employment credit reports of job applicants and current employees that have impacted the way employers conduct background checks. Seven states – California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, and Washington – currently have laws that limit the use of credit report checks by employers for employment purposes, with the most recent law, California Assembly Bill 22 (CA AB 22), taking effect January 1, 2012. Other states, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), are considering further restrictions on credit checks by employers. Read more about Trend Number 2 of the Employment Screening Resources Top 10 Trends in Background Checks for 2012.

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The RCMP says it is taking steps to speed up the checking of fingerprints submitted by Canadians seeking employment or volunteer positions as coaches, child care workers and caregivers for the elderly.

In an effort to speed up back-ground checks, the RCMP says it will install 32 additional fingerprint scanning devices in detachments across the country by the end of March and is ordering another 50.

The police force has come under fire for taking weeks – sometimes months – to pro-cess the checks. The waiting times reportedly have cost some people those jobs.

Under new rules that came into effect in 2010, anyone who wants to work or volunteer with vulnerable groups, such as children or the elderly, and who shares a birth date and gender with a pardoned sex offender, must submit fingerprints to Ottawa for analysis to ensure they aren’t the same person.

Following the rule change, the RCMP saw the number of so-called vulnerable sector checks it had to perform balloon from 130 a month to 8,000 a month.

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In 2010, the Chicago Public Schools declined to hire Darrell Langdon for a job as a boiler-room engineer, because he had been convicted of possessing a half-gram of cocaine in 1985, a felony for which he received probation. It didn’t matter that Mr. Langdon, a single parent of two sons, had been clean since 1988 and hadn’t run into further trouble with the law. Only after The Chicago Tribune wrote about his case did the school system reverse its decision and offer him the job.

A stunning number of young people are arrested for crimes in this country, and those crimes can haunt them for the rest of their lives. In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Crime Commission found that about half of American males could expect to be arrested for a nontraffic offense some time in their lives, mostly in their late teens and early 20s. An article just published in the journal Pediatrics shows how the arrest rate has grown — by age 23, 30 percent of Americans have been arrested, compared with 22 percent in 1967. The increase reflects in part the considerable growth in arrests for drug offenses and domestic violence.

The impact of these arrests is felt for years. The ubiquity of criminal-background checks and the efficiency of information technology in maintaining those records and making them widely available, have meant that millions of Americans — even those who served probation or parole but were never incarcerated — continue to pay a price long after the crime. In November the American Bar Association released a database identifying more than 38,000 punitive provisions that apply to people convicted of crimes, pertaining to everything from public housing to welfare assistance to occupational licenses. More than two-thirds of the states allow hiring and professional-licensing decisions to be made on the basis of an arrest alone.

Employers understandably want to protect their employees and customers from risk. Yet at the same time, there is a growing public interest in facilitating job opportunities for those who have stayed crime-free for a reasonable period of time. The weak economy and a rethinking of the logic of mass incarceration — driven in large part by budget pressures — have also brought attention to the situations of ex-offenders like Mr. Langdon, who face the collateral consequences of conviction long after their involvement with the criminal justice system has ended. Federal authorities are beginning to pay attention. Last April, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. urged state attorneys general to review laws and policies “to determine whether those that impose burdens on individuals convicted of crimes without increasing public safety should be eliminated.”

Read more…

With a recent survey showing nine out of ten employers conduct criminal background checks on some or all job candidates, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) held a public meeting in July 2011 examining the use of arrest and conviction records by employers for criminal background checks to determine if the practice was an unfair and discriminatory hiring barrier to job seeking ex-offenders. The EEOC’s actions, coupled with the growing “Ban the Box” movement seeking to remove the criminal history question from job applications, shows that employer use of criminal records is under fire now more than ever. This is Trend Number 1 of the fifth annual ‘Employment Screening Resources (ESR) Top 10 Trends in Background Checks’ for 2012. To view the list of trends, visit http://www.esrcheck.com/ESR-Top-10-Trends-in-Background-Checks-for-2012.php.
EEOC Holds Meeting Examining Arrest and Conviction Records as Hiring Barrier

The EEOC – the agency of the U.S. Government that enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination – held a public meeting on July 26, 2011 to ‘Examine Arrest and Conviction Records as a Hiring Barrier’ and focus on the use of criminal records by employers for employment screening background checks. The meeting was designed to identify and highlight ways in which criminal records have been used appropriately and current legal standards. For more information about the meeting – including video, transcript, testimony, and bios – see ‘EEOC to Examine Arrest and Conviction Records as a Hiring Barrier’ at: http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/meetings/7-26-11/index.cfm.

The EEOC press release ‘Striking the Balance Between Workplace Fairness and Workplace Safety’ described how the Commission was told by experts that employers refusing to hire people with arrest and conviction records even years after they have completed their sentences may cause recidivism and higher social services costs, but also that businesses face confusing and conflicting laws when using sometimes unreliable arrest and conviction records in making employment decisions. The EEOC press release about the meeting is at: http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/7-26-11.cfm.

The meeting was an opportunity to “learn about the practical ways employers have been able to balance business concerns with the need to ensure that employment practices are fair and non-discriminatory,” according to EEOC Chair. Some in the meeting commented that removing arbitrary bars to hiring people with arrest and conviction records improves job availability and lowers crime and social costs, and also urged employers to develop and implement a “responsible business plan” and overcome “fears, biases and hiring challenges” in order to facilitate hiring people with arrest and conviction records. Also, contrary to what some believe, having an arrest or conviction record does not automatically mean that a person is unable to work for the federal government.

Read more…

In recent years, several U.S. states have passed laws regulating the use of employment credit reports of job applicants and current employees that have impacted the way employers conduct background checks. Seven states – California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, and Washington – currently have laws that limit the use of credit report checks by employers for employment purposes, with the most recent law, California Assembly Bill 22 (CA AB 22), taking effect January 1, 2012. Other states, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), are considering further restrictions on credit checks by employers. This is Trend Number 2 of the fifth annual ‘Employment Screening Resources (ESR) Top 10 Trends in Background Checks’ for 2012. To view the list of trends, visit http://www.esrcheck.com/ESR-Top-10-Trends-in-Background-Checks-for-2012.php.
The EEOC & Employment Credit Checks

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) held a public meeting in October of 2010 on the ‘Employer Use of Credit History as a Screening Tool’ that explored the growing use of credit histories of job applicants as selection criteria during employment background screening to see if the practice was discriminatory. The EEOC – the agency of the United States Government that enforces the federal employment discrimination laws – heard testimony from representatives of various groups to help the Commission ensure that the workplace is made free of all barriers to equal opportunity.

As a result of high unemployment forcing more people into the job market, an increasing number of job applicants are exposed to employment background screening tools such as credit checks that could unfairly exclude them from job opportunities. Critics of using credit histories for employment purposes said the practice can have a disparate and discriminatory impact on protected groups, including people of color, women, and the disabled. They can also be inaccurate and are not valid predictors of job performance.

Another concern expressed was that the use of credit histories creates a “Catch-22” situation for job applicants during the current period of high unemployment and high foreclosures, both of which have negative impacts on credit. Many job seekers are caught in a classic ‘Catch-22’ situation where they cannot pay their bills because they do not have a job but cannot get a job because of bad credit since they cannot pay their bills.

Read more…

Employers and recruiters have discovered a treasure trove of information about potential job applicants on social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and so-called ‘social media background checks’ are becoming more popular and prevalent than ever. However, the use of social media background checks for job applicants has become controversial and can present legal risks. Failure to utilize social media resources can arguably be the basis of a negligent hiring claim if an unfit person was hired for a position where a search of the internet may have raised a “red flag.” Conversely, employers face numerous landmines and pitfalls that can include that include privacy, discrimination, and accuracy issues. Lawsuits and developments in this area will likely be an ongoing topic in 2012. This is Trend Number 3 of the fifth annual ‘Employment Screening Resources (ESR) Top 10 Trends in Background Checks’ for 2012. To view the list of trends, visit http://www.esrcheck.com/ESR-Top-10-Trends-in-Background-Checks-for-2012.php.
The Lure of Social Media Background Checks

It is important to keep in mind that not only will social media searches be a critical part of pre-employment background screening, but there may be considerable activity in how social media is handled after a person is hired. Every employer should have a social media policy for current employees. This article, however, is focused on pre-employment selection and screening.

No discussion on employment screening background checks these days is complete without an analysis of how the Internet is used for uncovering information about job candidates. A social media search allows an employer to literally “look under the hood,” and hopefully find out who a person really is. Not only does a social media search help in finding candidates, but it may prove to be an invaluable due diligence tool. For example, if a person’s blogs, social networking page, or tweets appear to promote inappropriate sexual activity or perhaps threats of violence, an employer may want to think twice before putting such a person in contact with groups at risk, such as children, the aged, or the infirmed. Likewise, if a person has made derogatory or unprofessional comments about co-workers or past employers, or engaged in online harassment, those are things that any Human Resources manager may be interested in knowing about.

However, while employers and recruiters may feel they hit the information jackpot on potential job applicants by using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, business networking sites like LinkedIn, videos on YouTube, search engines like Google, and various blogs and posts, the unrestricted use of social media background checks can land them in hot water since just because certain information is online does not mean it is risk free or even true.

Read more…

SecureWatch, an ADT authorized dealer based here, takes steps to make sure job applicants don’t have criminal backgrounds—such as paying a top-notch company to do background checks on them and searching the Internet for information about them, said company COO Paul Victor.

So the company was stunned to learn that a brand-new door-to-door sales rep it had hired—who Victor said had checked out clean—stands charged with raping and attempting to murder a potential customer in her home last week while he was working for SecureWatch in Tampa, Fla.

Rashad Hales, 19, of Tampa, was out selling security systems the evening of Dec. 30 when he forced his way into the woman’s home, raping and choking her and threatening her with a knife, according to news reports.

“This is beyond shocking,” Victor told Security Systems News. “We did all the damn right things and still this happened. So I guess the lesson is: You never know and think about the unthinkable.”

No information the company had about Hales would have predicted he would be a threat to anyone, Victor said.

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