State struggles to keep pace with background check requests

PORTLAND, Maine — The State Bureau of Identification says it can´t maintain the current level of requests for criminal background checks without more staff.

The Department of Public Safety, which received a record 37,000 requests last year, wants to add five workers to the bureau to help process requests, update criminal history records and convert paper records to electronic files.

The department says the new staff is essential to keep up with the workload and to implement recommendations of a domestic violence task force that calls for background checks for all accused abusers before bail is set.

"That unit is hemorrhaging and this will at least apply a temporary tourniquet to keep pace with what´s coming through the door," said Michael Cantara, commissioner of the Department of Public Safety.

Demand for criminal background checks has been growing for years, and it surged after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In 2004, there were 350,607 requests, a 10 percent increase over the previous year. There were more than 100,000 in just the first three months of 2005, according to testimony by Cantara before the Legislature´s Transportation Committee.

The increased demand for criminal records is a reflection of technological advances that make the information accessible and timely.

"We´re doing something we weren´t doing before. The paper records don´t lend themselves as quickly to recall," said Elizabeth Ward Saxl of the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault, co-chairman of the governor´s domestic violence advisory commission.

The commission concluded that bail commissioners, prosecutors and judges need prompt access to a defendant´s criminal history to make informed decisions about bail and other factors important to public safety. And the numbers suggest that while requests from employers, landlords and other members of the public have increased, most of the jump has been from criminal justice agencies.

Law enforcement is relying on criminal histories much more than in the past, when the bureau had a backlog that at times was more than a year, according to Lt. Jackie Theriault, who oversees the bureau.

Because quicker response time makes the information more useful, the number of law enforcement requests jumped from 1,600 a week to 4,600, she says.

Without new staff, the increased workload means training and quality control can slip and the 24-person bureau is less able to transfer paper records to the more easily accessible electronic files, Cantara said.

Adding five people at a cost of almost $300,000 a year will help alleviate, though not solve, the problem, he said.

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