COLUMBUS – The arrests and convictions of school employees, security guards, casino employees and foster parents also may have escaped detection due to a long-lingering flaw with a component of Ohio’s criminal-background check system, according to an investigation by Columbus media outlets.
READ MORE: In the Columbus Dispatch and at WBNS 10-TV
Drunken driving, drug offenses, theft and domestic violence are the most-common offenses among more than 100 school employees and others whose convictions went unreported to their employers during the past two years, The Columbus Dispatch and WBNS 10-TV reported.
Even some felonies — such as sexual battery and theft in office — went unreported to employers and state overseers as the Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s “Rapback” notification system failed to work as designed.
The system did not work properly from mid-2013 until last month because updated software was not triggered to search for offenses among 80,000 names since added to the system, Attorney General Mike DeWine said Monday.
The system — which now contains about 380,000 people — is designed to notify public- and private-sector employers when employees are arrested and convicted of crimes so potential job-related actions can be considered.
The Ohio Department of Education, with 284,000 teachers, bus drivers and other school employees enrolled in “Rapback,” is the biggest user of the system.