"Fingerprinting of Job-Seekers Proliferates"
Wall Street Journal (06/07/05) P. B1 ; Fields, Gary

Once a rarity for job applicants, fingerprints are now required in for those seeking positions in a wide variety of fields. Applicants for the janitor's job at the Bruggenmeyer Memorial Library in Monterey, Calf., must be screened with prints, as must liquor-store owners in Telluride, Colo., and school-bus drivers throughout Illinois. Insurers are requiring some companies to conduct background checks, including fingerprints, of workers. The laws requiring fingerprints have spawned a cottage industry of electronic fingerprint capturers, companies that gather prints by computer or those that convert the old-style fingerprint cards to electronic images. Once taken, most of the prints are sent to state authorities, which pass them on to the FBI fingerprint center in Clarksburg, Va. Last year, the FBI performed nine million checks for private employers, up from 3.5 million in 1992; in fact, half of the FBI's fingerprint checks today are employment-related. The mass fingerprinting is raising concerns among privacy advocates and forensic experts, who question both the wisdom of widespread fingerprinting and the accuracy of fingerprint data. Placing prints in the hands of private companies will eventually make it easier for someone to replicate -- and misuse -- fingerprints of average citizens, claims Timothy Sparapani, legislative counsel on privacy issues for the American Civil Liberties Union. "There are going to be data spills," he says. Last month, a travel agency for the Justice Department lost information on 80,000 Justice employees. For years, employees of private organizations needing prints checked went through law-enforcement agencies. Now, companies such as National Background Check Inc., a Columbus, Ohio, company with 12 offices around that state, digitally fingerprint thousands of job applicants and other individuals each month and usually process the prints within 24 hours. The speed "allows people to make hiring decisions rather than firing decisions," says Eric Lapp, company vice president.


"Some Police Now Prefer Newer Lie-Detection System"
Associated Press (05/17/05) ; Smith, Allison L.

Illinois law enforcement are adopting alternative lie-detection systems that are more portable and less expensive than polygraph tests, after the state General Assembly approved voice-stress analysis for use last year. Illinois was one of the few remaining states which did not approve the 30-year-old technology, which some potentially biased experts say is inferior to polygraphs because it only accounts for one physiological factor. Neither polygraphs or voice-stress analysis are allowed as evidence in Illinois courtrooms, but police say the voice-stress analysis technology is especially useful for directing investigations because it can be run from a laptop computer. Specially trained polygraphers are difficult to come by and can take up to a month to schedule, says Lake in the Hills police Sgt. David Brey. With voice-stress analysis, trained officers can immediately conduct lie-detection tests to rule out suspects. Two companies supply Illinois police departments with the technology and training, and several agencies spent around $1,200 with The Baker Group for 40 hours of classroom study and 10 hours of home study per officer. State law requires officers to be retrained in the technology every year.
(go to web site)

Source: American Society of Industrial Security - SK Sharma

The views and facts stated above are entirely the responsibility of the author and do not reflect the views of this Association in any manner.