Felons and FF's-Illinois

[NJFFSA16]

Bill would prevent felons from volunteering

(Springfield-AP) -- The Illinois Senate is considering
legislation that would prevent felons from serving on volunteer
fire departments.
St. Clair County State's Attorney Bob Haida asked state
Representative Tom Holbrook of Belleville, to introduce the
legislation after felons and arsonists were found working at local
fire districts.
Under the proposed legislation, prosecutors would be allowed to
ask a judge to remove a firefighter found to have a felony
conviction or a crime of moral turpitude.
While Haida says the bill does not call for mandatory criminal
background checks, it may inspire some fire departments across the
state to look more closely at prospective volunteers.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[jaybird210]

Interesting. This bill is certainly needed, but I find it curious that NO ONE will do background checks. Not our insurance carrier; not our local PD; I am having troubling getting a hold of anyone at the State Police to do this.

I had heard of a website that will do background checks for a nominal fee (if my feeble memory serves me correctly, it was in the neighborhood of $10). Anybody else hear of this?

[ChiefReason]

Yes; we use it where I work!

Hi, Digger.
As luck would have it, you came to the right place. Our HR guy at my workplace uses a service that costs $15 per and for another $7, they will run a work injury history. Both are important. You don't want any felons or someone who makes it a practice of filing bogus work comp claims. State police will do them if you can GET them to do them. If you don't have alot of turnover, the money in minor and the return is worth it.
I will send you the info tomorrow. Stay tuned.
CR

[jaybird210]

That will be a beautiful thing. Twenty-two bucks is money well spent, even if we do it ten times a year.

Do you think I'd have had better luck last week if I'd used a 3-iron, instead of a spade?

[MIKEYLIKESIT]

Our Cops do an extensive backround check on both full and part-time employee candidates.

[ChiefReason]

Get out your pen and paper....

Jay:
The website service that our company uses is:
www.e-verifile.com.
Give that a shot. You can do a whole bunch of stuff. Kinda customize it to suit your needs.
Let me know how it goes.
I think in light of everything else that is happening, this site could see a dramatic increase in its presence.
CR

[jaybird210]

CR, thanks a bunch. Pretty conprehensive site. Hope I can talk the trustees into spending the money......

[SCSESATech]

The fire departments the article indicates don't perform background checks. Those departments were aware of the individual's history before conviction. A lot of departments don't reasonable follow the law now. Why should this bill be any different? I don't see enforcement of exiting laws unless someone dies. For example, departments are required to file audits with the county and state annual and making records available to the public. Honestly, all those areas aren’t really the representatives district. Must be the election cycle starting early.
If they wish to do so good. How about enforcing training requirement of the existing laws. How about require the fire chief to live in the district or a reasonable distance from it. How about making the county LEPCs provide annual training and multi-agency drills. How about random audits of department with low fire ratings. How about rewarding departments who regular progressive training, raiser money and perform the best they can with resources. I have to stop now, My soapbox fell apart.

[jboczek]

SCSESATech,
It sounds like a good law to me. We don't do background checks, but we do check local references since we seldom get a total stranger apply. We've turned down some people because of some shady histories we got from the area. If the states attorney wants to do a background check on our people, fine. If somebody turns out to be no good, I'd be happy to get rid of him/her.
We comply with every law we can, including filing our financial reports with the county and state. I think it would be safe to say that all, or at least close to all, of the departments do everything they can to stay within the laws. Maybe your guys in the st. louis area are different, but we do our best to behave ourselves.
By the way, where did you study grammar? Your last post was the most difficult thing I have tried to read in a long time.

[SCSESATech]

My issue isn’t against the principal purpose of the law. Departments being required to screen people who apply to volunteer. The issue is Springfield doesn’t provide free background checks for departments. Nor are they addressing the other correctable problems departments are having. The law proposed most likely will not be enforced unless there is an incident warranting it. I sited other examples of noncompliance that some departments get away with in the previous post. I am not implying all departments, just the ones I know which are guilty. They are also named in the article.

[MikeF25]

A job I used to have made me go get a copy of my background from the county courthouse.

I was surprised at how long that was.

DOH!

[jaybird210]

Hi Mike!

Good to see you again, Mike. I was afraid the new wifey had put the screws to ya and taken away your 'puter!

How's the weather been up your way?

[MikeF25]

We had a tornado touch down in the northern part of the county, just outside our district, as far as I know it did no damage. It was pretty scary looking last night.


She hadn't put the screws down or nothing, we got internet privelages taken away at work, and that is where I did most of my posting.

We had a good rescue call a couple of days ago, guy in an 8 foot hole with with a 75,000 lb tractor, luckily he was in the cab and unurt.

It looked really cool though.

Oh yeah and thanks for noticing the unscheduled hiatus.

[larrytelcom]

Blanket statements

I understand the need for this type of bill as jaybird210 suggested to weed out arsonists or violent persons, but to paint with such a broad brush is not even American. This type of bill should be very specific and not terminate a potential candidate for a non-violent crime or the like, this should be more of a case by case basis!

[ChiefReason]

I understand the need for this type of bill as jaybird210 suggested to weed out arsonists or violent persons, but to paint with such a broad brush is not even American. This type of bill should be very specific and not terminate a potential candidate for a non-violent crime or the like, this should be more of a case by case basis!

Larry:
It's been three years since this thread was started. Maybe Jay isn't painting with a broad brush anymore, but you'll have to ask him that.
I can tell you this; policies are designed to deal with issues on a case by case basis. Laws, unfortunately, can not. And since the bill zeroes in on a specific segment (convicted felons), I would expect that there will be few if any exceptions.
At my regular job, I am in close contact with the HR department and you would be amazed at how many applicants LIE about prior criminal history. And as soon as the background check comes back, the application becomes confetti. We employ people who goes into our customer's facilities and they have very expensive equipment that would be easy to take. So, if the applicant has a conviction for theft, burglary, violent crimes or domestic violence? See ya. Won't get a look.
I am all for giving someone with minor infractions a second chance, but rest assured, they would be given only ONE, second chance.
CR