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Officials in Charlotte, N.C., are changing the city's background check (Click here) policies.

The city currently conducts nationwide criminal background checks on all of its public safety, professional and technical workers. However, Charlotte had only been completing local checks covering the past seven years for non-skilled laborers.

According to an article by FOX Charlotte, the changes came about after Royce Mitchell, a street maintenance worker for the city and convicted felon, was brought into Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department on rape allegations in connection with a teenager's death.

"We had this one small gap that we're going to close." Tim Mayes, human resources director for the city, said in the article.

Charlotte currently spends about $250,000 per year on background checks for employees. Police and fire department employee checks cost between $200 and $300 each, while checks for maintenance workers cost only about $40. The new change in policy will add about $5,000 in costs.

"We knew it was there but we just didn't think it made business sense to be paying the expense of going through a process that we didn't need to have ... and you have an occurrence like this," Mayes said.

Some residents and officials, however, are worried that convicted felons could still make their way onto city payroll regardless of the new background check policy.

"If it's been years ago, and based on the work the person is doing, and the kind of work record they've had since that occurrence, its possible we may hire them in some of our positions, just not for police and fire," Mayes added.

Labels: Background check