Archive for the ‘Criminal Records’ Category

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A Clerical Error Landed Kathleen Casey on the Streets

By Dawn in Background Checks, court cases, Criminal Background Check, Criminal Records, legal papers, MSI Detective Services, Police Records, Private Investigator at December 21st, 2011 | No comments

 

 

 

 

 

If you are an employer needing background checks performed on prospective employees, MSI Detective Services offers this service. Mistakes won’t be make like the ones you will read about in this story because we have the means to accurately check and cross-check information. For example, in the first story, our staff would have noticed that the birth date did not match the age of the individual, and even if it did, one of our Private Investigators would have pulled the police report to ensure they had the right person. Employers should also know that they are required by law to inform job applicants when they have been rejected because of negative information in a background check. This gives the applicant an opportunity to clear up any mis-information. So, unless you want a lawsuit on your hands, you are advised to do a proper background check and follow the law.

Out of work two years, her unemployment benefits exhausted, in danger of losing her apartment, Casey applied for a job in the pharmacy of a Boston drugstore. She was offered $11 an hour. All she had to do was pass a background check.

It turned up a 14-count criminal indictment. Kathleen Casey had been charged with larceny in a scam against an elderly man and woman that involved forged checks and fake credit cards.

There was one technicality: The company that ran the background check, First Advantage, had the wrong woman. The rap sheet belonged to Kathleen A. Casey, who lived in another town nearby and was 18 years younger.

Kathleen Ann Casey, would-be pharmacy technician, was clean.

“It knocked my legs out from under me,” she says.

The business of background checks is booming. Employers spend at least $2 billion a year to look into the pasts of their prospective employees. They want to make sure they’re not hiring a thief, or worse.

But it is a system weakened by the conversion to digital files and compromised by the welter of private companies that profit by amassing public records and selling them to employers. These flaws have devastating consequences. Read the full article »

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Think Tank Retracts Flawed Study on Marijuana Clinic Closings

By Dawn in Crime, Criminal Records, Investigations, MSI Detective Services, Police Records, Politics, Private Investigator, Surveillance Services at November 1st, 2011 | No comments

A nonprofit think tank retracted a widely reported study that linked last year’s closing of hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles to a rise in crime rates in surrounding neighborhoods.

Medical marijuana dispensaries with rooms of high-priced marijuana and cash registers brimming with cash are often seen as magnets for crime, a perception deepened by a few high-profile murders. But a report from the Rand Corp. reaches a startling conclusion: The opposite appears to be true.

Santa Monica-based Rand Corp. said in a statement that questions raised after the study was released last month prompted an unusual internal review.

Researchers relied on a commercial crime mapping service, believing it included information from various jurisdictions, including the Los Angeles Police Department. However, that agency did not give data to the service.

Researchers with the Santa Monica-based think tank used crime data compiled by a firm that collects information from about 1,200 law enforcement agencies, including the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, but not the LAPD.

“That review determined the crime data used in the analysis are insufficient to answer the questions targeted by the study,” the statement said.

The study looked at crime reports for neighborhoods surrounding 600 dispensaries in the 10 days before and 10 days after Los Angeles officials shuttered the pot clinics last summer after a new ordinance went into effect. The analysis showed crime increased about 60 percent within three blocks of a closed dispensary compared with those that remained open.

Ironically, the report found that the further away from the clinics, the less crimes were committed. Read the full article »

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Study Shows That False Confessions May Be More Common Than Previously Thought

By Dawn in Criminal Records, Interrogation, Investigations, MSI Detective Services, Technology at October 13th, 2011 | No comments

Dr. Gisli Gudjonsson is a professor of forensic psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College in London. He has recently published a study that demonstrates that almost 20% of criminals that have been convicted were convicted through a false confession given during their interrogations by investigators.

Research has found that in the United States voluntary false confessions are much higher than previously thought. These confessions are being proven incorrect through DNA evidence.

One of my guilty pleasures is watching “Cold Case Files.” On this program, cold cases are often solved with the use of DNA evidence. Other “real” crime shows often tell stories of how many people have spent years/decades in prisons for crimes they did not commit. Most of these innocent people were convicted before the advances that have been made in DNA over the last two decades. Fortunately for those who are lucky enough to have their case re-opened, the justice sytem has done an amazing  job of preserving evidence. Read the full article »

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Researchers identify genetic defect that leaves people fingerprintless

By alisa in Criminal Records, Screening at October 7th, 2011 | No comments

Fingerprints are a valuable identification tool for everything from crime detection to international travel. But what happens when the tips of our fingers are missing those distinctive patterns of ridges?

It’s not the premise for a science fiction movie, but a real-life condition known as adermatoglyphia. It’s also known as “Immigration Delay Disease,” because affected individuals experience difficulty in passing through security or checkpoints where fingerprint identification is required. Now Prof. Eli Sprecher from Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center has identified the genetic mutation responsible for this unusual condition.
Read the full article »

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