Calif. county may instate employee criminal history checks on ice cream truck vendors

Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors has proposed new regulations requiring ice cream truck operators, and other street vendors whose primary clientele consists of unsupervised children, to undergo fingerprinting and background checks before being licensed to run their businesses in Los Angeles County. Conducting these employee criminal history checks prior to licensing could potentially keep child predators and sex offenders away from areas in which children congregate, such as schools and parks. “We have a responsibility to protect our young children,” said Don Knabe of the Board of Supervisors. Knabe introduced these new regulations to the county. The Board proposes that each potential vendor’s employee criminal history records be checked for instances of molestation, pornography, child abuse and sexual crimes prior to providing any licenses to serve children. The Board’s staff has been instructed to explore these proposed requirements, and the Board has requested a report of existing vendors that serve unsupervised children, presumably to ensure that all vendors — not just newly licensed ones — are fingerprinted and checked for criminal records before being allowed to continue in their work. The Board also wants to know what it would cost the county to screen future applicants and how long the per-applicant process will take to conduct. The Board has requested that the complete report be ready in early July. For more information about conducting employee criminal history checks, contact Mind Your Business. photo credit: Kazz.0 via photopin cc]]>