4 ms·

Only about a dozen states ban employer questions about arrest records outright. More states have no restrictions on it at all. Another set of states bans asking

Only about a dozen states ban employer questions about arrest records outright. More states have no restrictions on it at all. Another set of states bans asking about expunged or sealed records, but anything else is fair game. Among the ones who have partial bans they range from "No, unless you run a bank and the arrest was for alleged fraud or bank robbery" to "Basically yes, unless it's a really old arrest and the salary is below a threshold."

nicoburns 4y ago
What seems bizarre is that an employer would care about a mistaken arrest.
- cgriswald 4y ago
  There's often an implication that an arrest wasn't necessarily mistaken, even if no charges were filed, the charges were dropped, or the person was acquitted. I can see it making a sort of sense in some edges cases. Would you hire a bartender who had been arrested six times on suspicion of DUI just because he was never convicted? I think that would be hard to justify, if my insurance company would even allow it. (So, in my opinion, it's better if I never found out!) However, in general I find the idea distasteful, uncharitable, and un-American. That said, I suspect most employers just like to have as many legal reasons to reject an applicant as possible to make it harder to be sued (irrespective of whether those employers are racists). In Michigan they were more or less explicit that they put their ban in place because black people are being arrested and charged at rates disproportional to eventual convictions versus other groups.
  - DarylZero 4y ago
    DUI example is strange. There are blood alcohol tests, can't really avoid conviction if you fail the test. What's the explanation supposed to be for all the acquittals? The way you say it, it's like you think that more and more acquittals is evidence of guilt, but that doesn't make any sense to me. Repeated arrests would be no accident of chance, but those repeated acquittals would even call into question a conviction in the future. Something is going on to generate false accusations.
    - dragonwriter 4y ago
      > There are blood alcohol tests, can't really avoid conviction if you fail the test. You can't be forced to take (or, even, given additional punishment based on an advance-consent licensing provision, as California has and used to enforce) a blood alcohol test without a warrant under Supreme Court case law, and warrants take time.
      - rascul 4y ago
        In Pennsylvania, their implied consent law means refusal results in the suspension of your driver's license. https://www.mtvlaw.com/blog/2019/august/what-are-pennsylvania-s-implied-consent-laws-/ https://www.mtvlaw.com/blog/2019/august/what-are-pennsylvani...
rascul 4y ago
Arrest records are generally public, in my experience. Perhaps it wasn't important to ask me since it would come up in a background check. But then so are conviction records. It's just not what I remember when applying to jobs, is all.
- cgriswald 4y ago
  In my previous state it wasn't banned and I saw it on every application I ever filled out, but that was quite some years ago and my current state doesn't allow it. I've heard stories of people being fired for other reasons, but officially because the company did a background check later and the person had lied on their application.
  - rascul 4y ago
    That's interesting to me. Thank you for sharing.

nicoburns 4y ago

What seems bizarre is that an employer would care about a mistaken arrest.

cgriswald 4y ago
There's often an implication that an arrest wasn't necessarily mistaken, even if no charges were filed, the charges were dropped, or the person was acquitted. I can see it making a sort of sense in some edges cases. Would you hire a bartender who had been arrested six times on suspicion of DUI just because he was never convicted? I think that would be hard to justify, if my insurance company would even allow it. (So, in my opinion, it's better if I never found out!) However, in general I find the idea distasteful, uncharitable, and un-American. That said, I suspect most employers just like to have as many legal reasons to reject an applicant as possible to make it harder to be sued (irrespective of whether those employers are racists). In Michigan they were more or less explicit that they put their ban in place because black people are being arrested and charged at rates disproportional to eventual convictions versus other groups.
- DarylZero 4y ago
  DUI example is strange. There are blood alcohol tests, can't really avoid conviction if you fail the test. What's the explanation supposed to be for all the acquittals? The way you say it, it's like you think that more and more acquittals is evidence of guilt, but that doesn't make any sense to me. Repeated arrests would be no accident of chance, but those repeated acquittals would even call into question a conviction in the future. Something is going on to generate false accusations.
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    > There are blood alcohol tests, can't really avoid conviction if you fail the test. You can't be forced to take (or, even, given additional punishment based on an advance-consent licensing provision, as California has and used to enforce) a blood alcohol test without a warrant under Supreme Court case law, and warrants take time.
    - rascul 4y ago
      In Pennsylvania, their implied consent law means refusal results in the suspension of your driver's license. https://www.mtvlaw.com/blog/2019/august/what-are-pennsylvania-s-implied-consent-laws-/ https://www.mtvlaw.com/blog/2019/august/what-are-pennsylvani...

rascul 4y ago

Arrest records are generally public, in my experience. Perhaps it wasn't important to ask me since it would come up in a background check. But then so are conviction records. It's just not what I remember when applying to jobs, is all.

cgriswald 4y ago
In my previous state it wasn't banned and I saw it on every application I ever filled out, but that was quite some years ago and my current state doesn't allow it. I've heard stories of people being fired for other reasons, but officially because the company did a background check later and the person had lied on their application.
- rascul 4y ago
  That's interesting to me. Thank you for sharing.