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Records of criminal background checks found missing
February 26, 2015 posted by Steve Brownstein
Hamilton County Commissioner Chris Monzel said Wednesday night that gaps in records of criminal background checks are unacceptable, and he's determined to make sure those holes don't happen again.
Several Ohio county systems maintained breaks in records of criminal background checks, according to an investigation from WBNS-10TV of Columbus.
"Criminal background checks are a cornerstone of protection. They hold protection orders for domestic violence victims and they can keep abusers from getting jobs at daycares," WBNS writer Nathan Baca said.
When a police officer pulls someone over and takes their identification, they run it through a statewide database.
From the county's system, police can find out if a person is wanted, or was recently found guilty of a violent crime.
In its investigation, WBNS discovered a period of time since April 2014, when for more than four months, Hamilton County records were not added. The gap affects about 40,000 records, which court and Attorney General officials told WBNS is a combination of issues.
"I had no idea whatsoever and it's quite shocking to find out that this has occurred for so long," Hamilton County commissioner Chris Monzel told WCPO reporter Evan Millward, "especially with all the information we try to get and make sure that we have systems in place."
Scott Wagner is a commander at Columbus State's Police Academy. He has decades of law enforcement.
"We're talking about potential life and death issues for officers on the street," Wagner told WBNS. "I think it's a critical issue that needs to be addressed head on and not swept aside or excuses made."
According to Hamilton County, the issue was a technical glitch.
It's since been corrected, but the records expired in November.
That's when the Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) asked to stop receiving some records, and to just get dispositions.
That request caused the delay, a backlog of 40,000 dispositions, which means there was no update to the computer systems officers rely on during traffic stops.
"When an officer is involved with some type of a traffic accident and they're running a background check, they're assuming that that information is accurate and that their safety is not at risk," Monzel said. "It seems there was some kind of miscommunication that was happening between BCI and us and I think that's something that needs to investigated as well."
Monzel plans to talk to Hamilton County administration Thursday, and get to the bottom of the missing records.