FROM
The Salt Lake Tribune
October 17, 2005
Crime background check for evacuees
By Nate Carlisle
Hurricane Katrina evacuees arriving in Utah were given food, showers and clean clothing. . . . and a criminal background check.
The checks were conducted on everyone age 18 and older, a Utah Department of Public Safety spokesman said Friday.
The checks identified two people with outstanding warrants and one person on federal parole, but no one was arrested or expelled from the evacuee center at Camp Williams, said Lt. Doug McCleve.
The background checks were part of a larger effort to keep the Katrina refugees safe as well as the workers and volunteers helping them, McCleve said.
"We had small children. We had elderly folks. And we didn't know where [the refugees] came from," McCleve said. "Can you imagine if we would not have checked into this stuff and we would have put the wrong person in the wrong place?"
Police looked to see who had criminal histories or outstanding warrants. McCleve said he didn't know whether people were informed they would be subject to a background check, but he said such checks are standard procedure for law enforcement and consent is not necessary.
"The same would be true on a traffic stop," McCleve said. "I'm probably not going to inform you that I'm going to do a background check."
Dani Eyer, executive director of the ACLU of Utah, said her office and ACLU affiliates across the country have discussed the appropriateness of criminal checks on Katrina refugees.
Eyer said it is problematic anytime government wants to conduct such checks without specific suspicions, but noted Utah has not turned away any refugees because of something found during a check.
"When we heard about this, we all kind of shrugged and said 'What's the point of the background check?' '' Eyer said.
McCleve said the checks revealed two people who had warrants related to misdemeanor charges. One was a theft charge and the other was for drug possession. Those persons were not arrested, McCleve said, because the warrants were not extraditable.
Often that means the warrants are not from Utah or an adjoining state.
A third person is on federal parole, McCleve said, and that person's parole officer has been notified of the parolee's whereabouts.
McCleve said there have been no law enforcement problems at Camp Williams. No one has been arrested and no citations have been issued.
"These people who are here truly have had exemplary behavior," he said.