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August 25, 2005
After reading "Databases for Dummies"...
Arthur Kirk was arrested on felony weapons charges. No big story there, really. Except that he had a felony on his record already, but still managed to hold an administrative position with the Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District. Which is disturbing.
The school district contracted with Kirk as an AmeriCorps volunteer in 2001, unaware he had a lengthy felony criminal history under the name Arthur Kirkeby. He served more than five years in prison after being convicted in 1981 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving an 8-year-old boy in Macomb County.
But surely the school did background checks? Yes, they did. School officials entered Kirk's name, driver's license number, Social Security number and date of birth into Michigan State Police's Internet Criminal History Access Tool (ICHAT).
Which is a rather cool idea. But...
An Ingham County Probate Court official confirmed Kirkeby legally changed his name to Kirk there in 1985 ... [and] the system keys off a person's name, and no criminal history existed for Arthur Kirk, only for Arthur Kirkeby
And date of birth and SSN and drivers licence don't count toward search results.
The system has since been updated now they know people can change their names. I hope they know social security numbers can change too.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at August 25, 2005 12:19 PM
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