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Indiana Shield Law Has Critics
Private companies that buy and sell court records used in background checks are threatening to challenge a state law that allows people with years-old, low-level arrests to shield their criminal histories from employers.
They contend the law violates constitutional protections on free speech and may overstep federal rules on what states can regulate when it comes to collecting and disseminating information used to do employment screening and other background checks.
Chris Lemens, general counsel for the private data collecting company, backgroundscheck.com, told members of legislature's Criminal Law and Sentencing Policy Study Committee that the state needs to rewrite the law or face a legal challenge in court. During a committee hearing Thursday, Lemens said he objected to a portion of the law, slated to go into effect next year, that would penalize private data collectors for selling criminal records that had been sealed off by a court order. The law would also penalize those data collectors for providing background information that was inaccurate or incomplete.
Lemens was joined in his objections by Luke Rollins, a government affairs manager with Reed Elsevier, one of the world's biggest data collectors and the parent company of the information giant Lexis-Nexis Inc. Private data collectors buy and sell millions of criminal records, creating massive databases that they argue are not easy " or inexpensive " to keep current.
Lemens described Indiana's law as "much broader" than the laws in other states that restrict access to criminal records that have been sealed or expunged by the court.
The law to which they object was passed in 2011. Informally dubbed the "second chance" law, it allows Indiana residents with years-old, low-level arrests to get a court order to shield that information from public view, including potential employers. The records are still accessible to law enforcement.
The law applies only to arrests and/or convictions for misdemeanors and class D felonies, the lowest felony level in Indiana. The criminal history can be cleared with a court order only after certain conditions are met, including a waiting period of five or more years, and no additional arrests or convictions.
Since the state law was passed, more than 1,700 people have sought and obtained court orders sealing their criminal records.
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