This week, State Auditor Troy Kelley released a performance audit showing that our state’s background check system is severely lacking.
The audit found we could do a better job protecting our state’s most vulnerable – children, disabled, and the elderly – from criminals.
The audit was triggered by a report done last summer that showed a registered sex offender working as a school janitor, undetected, for nine years.
In addition, the report found 28 sex offenders had been living in foster homes and in-home preschools and day care centers. These dangerous situations could have been prevented if Washington’s background check system was more efficient.
Currently, background checks in our state are conducted when an applicant is hired for a “position of trust.” However, the system doesn’t tell employers when a current employee has been convicted of a new crime.
What we need is “rap back” service, which would provide automatic notifications when a person commits a criminal offense.
The federal government recommends rap back services as a best practice. Thirty-seven other states currently use or are developing rap back to their background check systems.
There are significant barriers to implementing these checks. The Legislature would need to amend state law to allow the FBI and Washington State patrol to keep fingerprint databases.
And, as always, this new system does not come cheap.
But out of the 800,000 applicants checked about 250 were charged with violent offenses and should have been removed from their positions.
And it only takes one of these offenders to victimize a loved one. Washington can and should do better for its children.