In October 2004, an employee of a New York grocery delivery company was charged with aggravated harassment and stalking for making obscene phone calls to women to whom he had delivered groceries. An in-depth search into the harasser’s background would have turned up at least two felony and six misdemeanor convictions. His employer’s vice president of human resources has been quoted as saying “for a delivery personnel with a burglary
conviction, we certainly wouldn’t hire them if we found that.”
In this particular case, and unlike the majority of negligent hiring cases, the harasser’s employer did, in
fact, run a criminal background check on the man. The background check came up clear, with no record
of a felony conviction or his release from prison last year after a bribery conviction. So how could an excon,
and a repeat offender, show a clear criminal record a year after his prison release?
The pre-employment screening firm who ran the search offers several screening options. The package
chosen by the employer in this case is referred to as a “database search,” or a list of names and criminal
convictions that are either purchased or acquired through public records. One such source of records is
New York’s Department of Correctional Services, who reports crimes for which a criminal served time in a
state prison; this list does not include city correctional facilities like Riker’s Island, where the harasser was
sentenced for his conviction last spring. The information New York provides also does not include
misdemeanors; the employee was convicted of six misdemeanors in the 1990’s.
The employer has since terminated their relationship with the employment screening company citing an
unsatisfactory explanation as to why they did not flag the employee for his extensive criminal history. They
hired a new firm and will be requiring secondary background checks for their 270 delivery people, and
will be paying more money for a more extensive level of search this time.
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