Hansen: Under the thumb of security hard-liners

You don’t need to provide your fingerprints to buy a gun, but you do if you want to teach macrame at the Laguna Beach Senior Center.

As cities try to improve their background checks, the list of security ironies grows longer.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, even your Social Security number is optional when you fill out form No. 4473, the 2 1/2-page Firearms Transaction Record required to purchase a gun from a retail store.

Just show a picture ID and say that you’ve never committed a felony, stalked an ex-girlfriend or been “addicted” to pot, and you’re pretty much good to go.

In the case of Laguna, officials sent a memo last month stating that all subcontractors will be required to roll ink on their thumbs.

“Effective January 1, 2016, all contract instructors and all subcontractors are required to have a Security Background Check to teach contract classes through the City of Laguna Beach Community Services Department,” the memo states. “Fingerprinting must be done at the Laguna Beach Police Department and the applicant must be cleared prior to teaching any activities.”

The city has offered to pay the $32 fee for the fingerprinting — for contractors only, not subcontractors.

Laguna is not alone in the biometric background check business.

There are 117 official fingerprinting places in Orange County alone, according to the state. They charge anywhere from $10 (usually at your local police station) to $35 for the same service. The average is about $20.

At the state level, the numbers skyrocket.

“Today there are over 45,000 agencies authorized to perform background checks,” according to the state. “Department of Justice technicians process approximately 2 million state level background checks and 1.2 million federal level background checks annually.”

It’s fairly common — and legally acceptable — today to check the backgrounds of people who want to work with children or large groups, like childcare workers, public school teachers, taxi drivers, firefighters, police officers, etc. What has changed lately is the scope of the job descriptions and the extent to which technology is playing a role.

Officially, it started in 1993 when the National Child Protection Act was signed into law, authorizing states to perform criminal background checks on people who wanted to work with children. Public school teachers took the brunt, obviously, but not without some grumbling. Cash-strapped districts made the teachers pay for the costs, for example. Some states imposed follow-up checks when teachers recertified.

Meanwhile, critics contend that the FBI fingerprint database is woefully problematic. If mistakes are made, it can take months or even years to correct them. And in the meantime, innocent job seekers are ostracized, often never getting employment — anywhere.

In 2013, the National Employment Law Project published a report alleging that the FBI’s inaccuracies are blocking 600,000 Americans annually from “jobs for which they may be perfectly qualified.”

The American Civil Liberties Union supports these contentions.

“Even those who possess proficient job training are stymied from potential employment opportunities when an FBI background check reveals a past criminal conviction,” according to an ACLU report in 2010. “This is further exacerbated when the report erroneously reflects incomplete information which, according to a 2006 Department of Justice report, plagues over 50 percent of the existing FBI database records.”

Sometimes, according to the ACLU, people are exonerated of any wrongdoing, but their FBI file is never updated.

“Because many state records, whether from law enforcement agencies or courts, have not been updated or even included, the FBI database is filled with irregularities,” the ACLU said.

But the march toward complete disclosure goes on. Not content with fingerprinting, DNA is now the technology de jour.

Foreshadowing things to come, the University of Akron in Ohio in 2009 tried to force job applicants to submit their DNA. After the resignations of professors and a national uproar, the university rescinded the directive.

Back in Laguna Beach at the community center, there’s no word yet on what the city might do if instructors refuse to submit their fingerprints.

Some instructors have taught for years at the facility and were put off by the new requirement. While they don’t have anything to hide, it seems heavy handed for the types of classes at the center, which include ukulele lessons, belly dancing, AARP driver renewal, basic bridge and needlework.

Maybe the assumption here is to find the criminal before the bridge game starts because no one wants a cheater.

DAVID HANSEN is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at [email protected].