Sunday, October 31, 2004
Holes found in background checks
Newsday, Inc.
October 21, 2004, 8:20 PM EDT
By Karen Kreifeld, Staff Writer
Just how do you know that delivery person knocking at your door isn't a criminal?
The arrest earlier this month of a FreshDirect deliveryman, an ex-con who allegedly made obscene calls to female customers, has raised serious questions about possible gaping holes in commercial background checks.
In FreshDirect's case, the company hired ChoicePoint, a major background check company, to vet its employees for possible criminal histories.
Despite the check, FreshDirect did not know Erik Reynolds, 33, of the Bronx was an ex-con with at least two felony convictions and a half-dozen misdemeanors until his arrest this month.
FreshDirect has since fired Reynolds -- and ChoicePoint, saying ChoicePoint did not provide a "very satisfactory" reason for why it did not flag Reynolds for them.
Chuck Jones, a spokesman for ChoicePoint, said his company provides customers with several levels of screening options, some simple and some complex.
For FreshDirect, ChoicePoint performed what the company calls a National Criminal File search, which searches records in all 50 states. But the breadth and depth of records varies by state. In New York, all this search included was online prison release records from the New York Department of Correctional Services and ChoicePoint proprietary records.
This is among several reasons someone's criminal history could go undetected. For starters, the Corrections Department search would reveal only crimes for which a criminal served state prison time. It would not record crimes for which someone would serve time on Rikers Island, a city correctional facility, for instance.
(A check of the Web site for Guy Velella, who pleaded guilty to one felony count of bribery last spring, for instance, and served time in Rikers Island brings up no matches.)
Second, it would not reveal misdemeanors at all.
A check of the Corrections Web site by Newsday turned up only one of Reynolds' crimes: his 1993 felony conviction for attempted burglary.
Why didn't ChoicePoint report that to FreshDirect?
Jones said that under New York law, no consumer reporting agency can report records of convictions, release or parole, more than seven years old.
What about the misdemeanors? Reynolds had six of those in the city from 1990 through 1997.
He also has another felony conviction from 1991 from Orange County for attempted criminal possession of stolen property, for which he received 11 months.
To find those crimes, FreshDirect would have had to request a more in-depth search that included files in the state Office of Court Administration.
In short, such background checks leave much to be desired. In fact, just as they can provide "clean" records for those with long rap sheets, sloppy work can also tag innocent people as felons.
Ironically, in 2000, ChoicePoint acquired Database Technologies of Boca Raton, Fla., the company notorious for wrongly including possibly innocent people on a convicted felon list for the Florida Division of Elections, using flawed data to erroneously remove thousands of people - many of them black - from the voting rolls.
FreshDirect's Boris said that his company, luckily, has not suffered from Reynolds' frightening encounters with FreshDirect customers.
Boris also said the Long Island City-based firm, which delivers groceries in three boroughs, is hiring a new firm to conduct background checks. All 270 delivery people for the company will undergo a secondary background check, he said.
"Thankfully it has not had an impact on sales," he said. "It's an isolated incident ... and we have had one of our best weeks ever."
Newsday, Inc.
October 21, 2004, 8:20 PM EDT
By Karen Kreifeld, Staff Writer
Just how do you know that delivery person knocking at your door isn't a criminal?
The arrest earlier this month of a FreshDirect deliveryman, an ex-con who allegedly made obscene calls to female customers, has raised serious questions about possible gaping holes in commercial background checks.
In FreshDirect's case, the company hired ChoicePoint, a major background check company, to vet its employees for possible criminal histories.
Despite the check, FreshDirect did not know Erik Reynolds, 33, of the Bronx was an ex-con with at least two felony convictions and a half-dozen misdemeanors until his arrest this month.
FreshDirect has since fired Reynolds -- and ChoicePoint, saying ChoicePoint did not provide a "very satisfactory" reason for why it did not flag Reynolds for them.
Chuck Jones, a spokesman for ChoicePoint, said his company provides customers with several levels of screening options, some simple and some complex.
For FreshDirect, ChoicePoint performed what the company calls a National Criminal File search, which searches records in all 50 states. But the breadth and depth of records varies by state. In New York, all this search included was online prison release records from the New York Department of Correctional Services and ChoicePoint proprietary records.
This is among several reasons someone's criminal history could go undetected. For starters, the Corrections Department search would reveal only crimes for which a criminal served state prison time. It would not record crimes for which someone would serve time on Rikers Island, a city correctional facility, for instance.
(A check of the Web site for Guy Velella, who pleaded guilty to one felony count of bribery last spring, for instance, and served time in Rikers Island brings up no matches.)
Second, it would not reveal misdemeanors at all.
A check of the Corrections Web site by Newsday turned up only one of Reynolds' crimes: his 1993 felony conviction for attempted burglary.
Why didn't ChoicePoint report that to FreshDirect?
Jones said that under New York law, no consumer reporting agency can report records of convictions, release or parole, more than seven years old.
What about the misdemeanors? Reynolds had six of those in the city from 1990 through 1997.
He also has another felony conviction from 1991 from Orange County for attempted criminal possession of stolen property, for which he received 11 months.
To find those crimes, FreshDirect would have had to request a more in-depth search that included files in the state Office of Court Administration.
In short, such background checks leave much to be desired. In fact, just as they can provide "clean" records for those with long rap sheets, sloppy work can also tag innocent people as felons.
Ironically, in 2000, ChoicePoint acquired Database Technologies of Boca Raton, Fla., the company notorious for wrongly including possibly innocent people on a convicted felon list for the Florida Division of Elections, using flawed data to erroneously remove thousands of people - many of them black - from the voting rolls.
FreshDirect's Boris said that his company, luckily, has not suffered from Reynolds' frightening encounters with FreshDirect customers.
Boris also said the Long Island City-based firm, which delivers groceries in three boroughs, is hiring a new firm to conduct background checks. All 270 delivery people for the company will undergo a secondary background check, he said.
"Thankfully it has not had an impact on sales," he said. "It's an isolated incident ... and we have had one of our best weeks ever."
