http://articles.dailypress.com/2012-09-01/news/dp-nws-police-hires-facebook-backgound-checks-0823-20120901_1_social-media-wight-sheriff-mark-marshall-check-job/2
Exclusive: Public safety agencies use social media to check applicants' backgrounds
Police and some fire departments are probing social media sites to get the digital dirt on prospective employees. They say the virtual character check is necessay to make sure people are fit to work in the agencies who are in the public eye.
Police and some fire departments are probing social media sites to get the… (Justin Sullivan, Getty…)
September 01, 2012|By Tyra M. Vaughn,
[email protected] | 247-7870
Before hiring a new sheriff's deputy earlier this year, Gloucester Sheriff Darnell Warren said an investigator conducted a criminal background check on the prospective employee, probed his credit report and interviewed his neighbors and previous employers.
He also said the person spent time browsing the job candidate's social media pages, checking out his friends, pictures, postings and digging for other digital dirt.
Warren calls it a virtual character check and he said the practice has become an important tool in making sure his agency hires a quality employee.
"We're trying to learn who the applicant is," Warren said. "We want to make sure we're not putting ourselves in an embarrassing situation."
Warren said he implemented the social media background checks into the hiring process after taking over the office in February.
"I don't want to hire somebody that on face value looks like an outstanding person and then you find out they've been blasting racial, anti-religious and anti-government remarks on social media," he said. "I don't want to hire somebody who is playing by the rules now because they work for me."
The Gloucester Sheriff's Office is not alone in checking Facebook and other social media sites as part of their hiring process. Many public safety agencies across the country are now looking at these sites to delve into the backgrounds of people who are hoping to wear their uniforms.
On the Peninsula, nearly every law enforcement agency probes these sites as some part of the vetting process.
James City County checks publicly accessible social media profiles as part of the overall hiring process for new firefighters, police and dispatchers, said James "Pete" Peterson II, the county's assistant director of human resources.
Hampton Police Division spokeswoman Mary Shackelford said all prospective employees are asked if they have social media pages, and public profiles of those individuals are sometimes looked at. However, the information discovered through the site checks are never used to disqualify an applicant, who Shackelford said will always continue through the process.
Williamsburg's police and fire department's both check job candidate's public pages. The police department began doing social media background checks when it hired its last crop of officers more than a year ago, said Chief Dave Sloggie. Twitter, Facebook and Myspace are among the sites investigators check, he said.
"It's just good common sense," Sloggie said. "We look at history as the best predictor of future behavior. In law enforcement, we realize society holds us up to a higher standard and our current and future officers need to be upholding to those standards."
It is for that reason that Isle of Wight Sheriff Mark Marshall said his office regularly monitors employees' and applicants' public postings and images on Facebook and other social mediums.
In recent years, a growing number of situations have cropped up nationwide, usually involving young officers and the most frequent users of social media, said Marshall, past president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
"We don't want to get into private affairs of people," Marshall said. "But there have been a number of cases around the country of officers posting inappropriate posts or pictures that are embarrassing to their agencies or localities … or in some cases, downright illegal."
Marshall's rule of thumb for aspiring law enforcement officers, when it comes to using social media: "If you have something inappropriate on there, get it off," Marshall said. "If you question what is appropriate, ask yourself what you grandmother would think if she saw your post."
The Gloucester Sheriff's Office checks both public and private social media profiles of job candidates, Warren said. He said his office doesn't request applicants' passwords but does require them to log into their pages so investigators can take a look. Candidates are allowed to decline the request, he said.
The Newport News Police Department also asks job candidates to log into their social media pages in order to check private profiles, said spokesman Lou Thurston. He said candidates who refuse to honor the request are not automatically disqualified from employment.
Warren said individuals are also not ruled out by his agency if they don't want to show their pages. He said that decision by an applicant would be concerning to him, however.
The practice of employers checking applicants' private social media pages is controversial and several states are considering laws that could ban it.
The Virginia American Civil Liberties Union remains critical of Virginia State Police who require prospective troopers to sign into their social media profiles on an agency laptop to allow a background investigator to look at it.
Earlier this year, the organization sent a letter to the state police superintendent, questioning the legality of the checks.
State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said the agency stands by its practice.
"Providing Virginia's citizens with the highest quality and caliber of state troopers requires a comprehensive vetting process," Geller said in a prepared statement. "The VSP is a unique public agency in the services it provides; therefore, in today's society, the virtual character check is just as important as the "physical" character check."
However, not all public safety agencies are currently checking social media in background investigations.
York County Sheriff's Office new hires tend to be people other employees recommend so the agency hasn't resorted to checking social media sites in the background check, said Sheriff J.D. "Danny" Diggs.
Mathews Sheriff Mark Barrick agrees, but said when he hires in the future, he plans to start checking the social media sites.
"I will probably do that before I even talk to them," he said.
Staff Writer Allison T. Williams contributed to this report.
Who's checking social media?
Newport News
(sour grapes)
