The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "criminal background checks" ...
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RGJ: ATF/US Attorney Rift
A months-long Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that after Reno’s chief U.S. Attorney told local ATF agents that her office would not prosecute their cases until certain unnamed “issues” were resolved, most of the agents transferred to new jobs outside Nevada, leaving Reno vulnerable to gun violence. The investigation found that the federal prosecutors dismissed or refused more than a dozen cases involving violent criminals. The RGJ probe also revealed that dozens of people who bought guns and later failed background checks were allowed to keep the guns because the rift emptied the Reno ATF office of the very agents who are tasked with retrieving those guns. The RGJ series led to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and an independent review of the dropped cases. It also sparked Congressional action.
Tags: Department of Justice; guns; gun violence
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Guns in America & The ATF's "Fast and Furious" Experiment
The year-long investigation exposed myriad lapses and loopholes in the nation's gun laws and regulations that have fueled the drug
Tags: guns; NRA; ATF; National Instant Criminal Background Check System
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Guns in America & The ATF's "Fast and Furious" Experiment
The year-long investigation exposed myriad lapses and loopholes in the nation's gun laws and regulations that have fueled the drug
Tags: guns; NRA; ATF; National Instant Criminal Background Check System
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Criminal Cab Drivers
This story reveals that “hundreds of criminals are behind the wheels of Houston cabs”. This is allowed to happen because if it falls outside of a 10 year period it won’t show up and they are allowed to get their cab license. It has become a standard on criminal background checks because people can change and straighten up their lives. But when one of these cab drivers commits a crime as a driver, people begin to question these tactics.
Tags: transportation; passengers; travel; cabbie; streets; taxicab; ordinance; FOIA; city council; Ricardo Steele; Yellow Cab
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"Trust Betrayed"
In this investigative series, Sun Sentinel reporters find numerous employees of Florida day care centers and nursing homes have startling criminal backgrounds. Many of the employees had criminal records that revealed crimes of child abuse, rape and murder. An obviously flawed Florida state law allows people to begin working as caregivers before a background check is complete.
Tags: Background checks; Florida day care; Florida nursing homes; Charlie Crist; criminal background; Department of Children & Families; George Sheldon; Children, Families and Elder Affairs committee
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Who's Watching Your Kids
Several lifeguards hired by the City of Memphis to work its pools were convicted criminals. The city hadn't conducted pre-employment background checks on "temporary employees" prior to 2007.
Tags: criminal past; felony; firearm; endangerment; job application; swimming pool; recreation;
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Trash-to-Energy Proposal Trashed
A company named Green Power "proposed turning Cheyenne's trash to diesel through the process of catalytic depolymerization." The Austrian gentleman who owned the company, Michael Spitzauer, intended to "cure the shortage of diesel and America's dependence on foreign oil within a matter of years." But a background check revealed a criminal record in Austria, and a jail sentence for fraud. In addition, an expert noted that it is not possible for "a low-energy material such as trash to be turned into a high-energy product such as diesel fuel."
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Criminal Child Care
In Texas no background checks are required for people to receive money from a federally funded child care program for providers. This allowed criminals to receive money from the program. Other cases of fraud occur. The program was intended to help needy parents, yet usually they were the ones on the waiting list.
Tags: child care; background check; family; parents; needy parents; fraud; criminals; federal funds; child care providers
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Holes in the System: Ohio's Missing Fingerprints
The State of Ohio's database is missing tens of thousands of criminal records used to perform background checks on job applicants for both public and private employers. Without the information, a convicted felon could potentially be hired for a position their conviction would usually preclude them from obtaining. The investigation found that local courts were not fingerprinting defendants who were summoned to court rather than being arrested. The state's computers do not accept a conviction without fingerprints. After finding many examples of convicted criminals' records not existing in the database, the reporters further discovered that some state officials were aware of the issue, but had been slow to act.
Tags: Criminal records; database; fingerprints; convicted felons; background checks
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Archdiocese Hires Criminal
The personnel director for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati knowingly hired a criminal to run a new program designed to protect children. His job was to conduct the fingerprint and background checks now required of all volunteers who coach or help out in Catholic schools. The investigation uncovered the personnel director was a close personal friend of the criminal for more than 20 years and that the troubled young man claimed the personnel director had sexually abused him as a child. He claimed he continued his sexual relationship with the personnel director in exchange for jobs, money and clothes. The criminal had access to the social security numbers of thousands of Catholic volunteers. It was shown how he continued to commit crimes while employed by the Archdiocese, and how the personnel director continued to cover for him, even bailing him out of jail.
Tags: archdiocese; Cincinnati; criminal; social security; sexual abuse; crime; volunteer; hiring; back ground checks