CDIA had an opinion piece published in the Albuquerque Journal. That city’s school board is considering mandatory fingerprint-based background checks for its employees. That’s a good start but it doesn’t go far enough. The board ought to be discussing the value of background checks provided by private companies as a requirement for employees. Private checks are better at protecting the public and better and protecting job applicants than government fingerprint checks.

Eric J. Ellman is Senior Vice President for Public Policy and Legal Affairs at the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA) in Washington, DC. He also served for eight months as Interim President and CEO of the Association. More