The University of Colorado Police Department in Boulder has been conducting national criminal-background checks on prospective university employees in violation of federal rules, says the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Since the late 1990s, the university’s police have run state and federal background checks on potential hires.
“I can also assure that we did do the national check,” said Sgt. Gary Arai, who is in charge of the department that runs the checks. Arai cited a state statute that he believes gives the police the right to do the searches.
But running a potential employee through the National Crime Information Center, or NCIC, database isn’t allowed, said a spokesman for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which administers the NCIC database along with the Colorado Crime Information Center, or CCIC, database for Colorado’s law-enforcement agencies.
The databases house criminal arrest and conviction information. Though the state database is searchable for background checks, the national database, kept by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is not, said CBI and FBI spokespersons.
“CU would not have the authority to do that on their own without there being a criminal justice purpose – an investigation of a crime or an arrest,” said Lance Clem, the CBI spokesman.
After a call from a reporter, Karl Wilmes, the director for the CBI office that administers the databases, contacted CU Police Chief Joe Roy to discuss the issue, Clem said Tuesday evening. A meeting is being scheduled to review the problem.
A CU spokeswoman said the police believe they were using the database correctly.
“If there are any violations on how national background checks are being used, we will correct it immediately,” said the spokeswoman, Michelle McKinney. McKinney said the searches were done with the intention of protecting its students and charges.
A state audit of the university made public Monday revealed that the CU police were conducting the national criminal background checks on potential employees of summer football camps run for 8- to 18-year-olds.
The auditor’s office confirmed Tuesday that the searches were done. Karen Hoover, the auditor’s spokeswoman, said the information contained in the CU background searches it reviewed contained information that only could have come from the national criminal database.
The auditor also conducted criminal records searches of a sample of those hired by the camp – and found some employees had misdemeanor offenses, including a child abuse conviction – but those searches were done using only the CCIC database.
“We don’t have the authority to do a national check,” Hoover said.
Staff writer Chuck Plunkett can be reached at 303-820-1333 or cplunkett@denverpost.com.
