Comptroller finds TBI background check problem

A state audit of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has found the agency that runs background checks on teachers and gun buyers often lacks information about criminal convictions.

The Tennessean reports a state comptroller’s report released recently found problems with court clerks forwarding the results of criminal cases. The problem stems from a long-standing argument about whether the courts or police and sheriffs departments are responsible for informing the TBI about convictions.

“Without accurate and up-to-date arrest disposition information, bureau activities such as background checks for law enforcement agencies and routine civil applicant and gun purchase background checks can be unnecessarily delayed or come to an erroneous conclusion,’’ the audit states. “Federal and local law enforcement agencies are also impeded in their crime-fighting efforts.’’

TBI spokeswoman Kristin Helm said that when performing background checks the bureau often has to call local law enforcement agencies and courts to try to track down whether criminal charges have resulted in a conviction. She said the process is burdensome but the agency is confident it has not made mistakes that could result in felons purchasing guns or convicted child molesters teaching children.

The agency is aware of all arrests in the state because local law enforcement agencies submit fingerprint information electronically to the bureau, she said.
The state Administrative Office of the Courts claims that, by law, the responsibility for informing the TBI of criminal convictions falls to law enforcement. But the audit places the responsibility on the courts.

Of the more than 2 million arrests in Tennessee between February 2001 and September 2008, the case outcomes were not reported to TBI in 41 percent of the cases, according to the audit. But that’s an improvement over the 1995 to 2003 period when there were no dispositions reported to TBI for 77 percent of arrests.

Two years ago, the Tennessee’s Integrated Criminal Initiative, a collaboration of justice-affiliated groups, proposed a system in which the district attorney’s office for each judicial district would send dispositions to TBI, but the group still needs $1 million to get the plan going, said project manager Fausto Vega.