The High Cost of Ignoring Red Flags

Imagine as an employer you were aware that your employee's molestation of a 4-year-old toddler and put him to work unsupervised with hundreds of young boys. What do you think the results would be?

Or, imagine being an employer, you hired someone a couple of years after being suspended from school for making threatening statements about weapons and racial hatred in the context of violence, and that same person was twice denied a firearms permit because of local police concerns over his threats. What do you think the results would be then?

Both of these situations occurred. Both have caused massive damage and trauma.

Though the end results of each were clearly foreseeable.

I spent three decades conducting background investigations,  pre-employment, as part of an internal investigation into allegations of wrong doing including sexual assault, harassment, and workplace violence, and for litigation on behalf of those who were harmed by people that were hired despite being a threat to others.

Conducting a solid investigation can go a long way towards reducing an employer's risk of having an employee that is a threat to his co-workers, and to the public. As can taking appropriate action based upon the investigation results. If you are serious about having a safe workplace, and protecting your staff from harm, download my FREE workplace violence prevention checklist by clicking here.

In 1991, the Santa Monica Police Department conducted a background check of a civilian employee of the department, who had also been volunteering in a Police Athletic League ("PAL") community program working with young children.

During that background check it was learned that as a minor, the employee Eric Uller, had molested a 4-year-old boy that he had been babysitting. He was not criminally charged with that molestation, and was sent to counseling.

Between that time, and his arrest and conviction in 2018, Uller molested approximately 200 at risk boys through his role in the PAL run by the Santa Monica Police Department.

The damage to those 200 boys will last a lifetime.

The damage to the taxpayer's, $223 million in settlements.

The damage to the department, irreparable.

The damage was completely avoidable. The police department could have terminated him at the time of the background check, or could have decided to prevent him from having access to children. But they did not.

I can hear the screams from the second chancers now....but wait...he was a minor at the time, and had not been criminally charged let alone convicted. 

But, the US EEOC has issued guidance that allows employers to based employment decisions based upon fact-patterns and not whether someone has been charged and convicted. And flat out molesting a 4-year-old is enough to prevent hiring someone who will have access to children.

Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Air National Guardsman, charged with possessing and leaking classified information, was on law enforcement's radar, three years before he was caught.

He should never have been given access to classified information through the clearance system. And quite possibly should not have been allowed into the guard.

Three years ago, Teixeira, was suspended from high school over discussing Molotov cocktails and other weapons, and racist statements, connected to threats of violence. The threats were enough that the local police department for two years in a row denied his application for a firearm's identification card.

And those doing his top secret clearance investigation, which led to his having access to an incredible amount of classified information, which he leaked, knew about his history, including reading the police reports.

We are still experiencing the damages from his actions, including undercutting our relations with other nations, and letting the Russian's know some of our intelligence assets under their command. Likely leading to their removal, incarceration, or execution. And setting our intelligence collection abilities back a decade or more.

And this damage never had to occur had those doing the background check and assessing the background check done their jobs.

Want to prevent workplace violence at your organization? Download my free workplace violence prevention checklist below.