Despite reports last fall that the Census Bureau had severed ties with community-organizing group known as ACORN, Americans might want to think twice before opening their doors to canvassers for the 2010 Census after reading what I discovered this morning.
According to a report issued by the Government Accountability Office Oct. 7, approximately 785 employees with disqualifying criminal records could still end up working for the Census Bureau this year. Excerpts (below) show the exact wording of the agency’s frightening information about the people who go door to door conducting interviews and collecting information for the 2010 Census:
The Bureau’s efforts to fingerprint employees, which was required as part of a criminal background check, did not proceed smoothly, in part because of training issues. As a result, over 35,000 temporary census workers — over a fifth of the address canvassing workforce — were hired despite the fact that their fingerprints could not be processed and they were not fully screened for employment eligibility.
…of the prints that could be processed, fingerprint results identified 1,800 temporary workers (1.1 percent of total hires) with criminal records that name check alone failed to identify. Of the 1,800 workers with criminal records, approximately 750 (42 percent) were terminated or were further reviewed because the Bureau determined their criminal records — which included crimes such as rape, manslaughter, and child abuse — disqualified them from census employment.
…we estimate that approximately 785 employees with unclassifiable prints could have disqualifying criminal records but still end up working for the Bureau.
In addition to the news about the criminal element aspect of the 2010 Census, the 2009 report contained an estimate of the total cost of the 2010 Census being some $3.4 billion higher than the estimate in a 2006 GAO report. Compared to ex-cons knocking at my door, I guess I can live with cost overruns. But I digress.
See also: Census Ads Everywhere, Including Back of the Bus
Cross-posted at BigGovernment.com
UPDATE 5/13/10 at 10:58 a.m. Central: See this new post, Census Worker Charged With Rape, Burglary.
6 responses so far ↓
1 » Links to Visit – 02/12/10 NoisyRoom.net: Where liberty dwells, there is my country… // Feb 12, 2010 at 2:15 pm
[...] Bob McCarty Writes – Think Twice Before Opening Door to Census Worker [...]
2 Debbie // Feb 12, 2010 at 3:11 pm
This will be a problem in large population areas, I doubt folks in rural areas will need to worry, because probably local folks will do the CENSUS visitations. But, don’t they mail out a lot of these? Surely they won’t have a human visit every other human in the U.S.
They are stressing the importance if completing the CENSUS forms, all questions, in order to ‘get all the funds you area deserves’ and for
‘redrawing voting districts’.
But as you recall, many of the questions are entirely too invasive into the ‘none of your business’ category. Many Americans have already decided to answer ONLY name, address, age, … the basics.
3 Earline Clark // Feb 14, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Is it legal to only give out the basics? I flat refuse to give up personal information on my family and myself. Sure would hate to go to jail for it.
4 Dave // Apr 1, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Debbie… are you kidding me? The Census survey had so few questions that when I finished it I thought “this is it”?
It was nothing more than name, age, sex, race of each person at that address, and a question about whether or not you owned your home outright / owned with a mortage / rented.
5 Brooke Lorren // Apr 27, 2010 at 3:36 am
They won’t send you to jail; all you have to do is pay a fine.
I didn’t fill in the phone number. For one, nobody is required to have a phone number, so what makes them assume I even have one. For another, it’s not their business. I figured I might as well fill in the rest, my descendants might find it useful.
6 » Census Worker Charged With Rape, Burglary - Big Government // May 14, 2010 at 11:14 am
[...] three months after I advised Americans to Think Twice Before Opening Door to Census Worker, two Indiana women were allegedly attacked by 39-year-old Daniel Miller, a U.S. Census worker who [...]
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