Census Bureau allowed Sex Offenders to collect personal information.

srkruzich · May 24, 2010, 09:19:27 PM

Another good reason to send the census workers packing. There is no excuse for this!

After two cases of alleged criminals going door-to-door to take surveys, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby said Monday that the U.S. Census Bureau must do more to prevent hiring census takers with a criminal background.

In a letter to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke sent Monday, Shelby wrote that when he asked Locke during a Senate hearing last year about guidelines to disqualify applicants, including sex offenders and people who've committed crimes against children, he was told the measures would ensure "each applicant is an acceptable risk to collect census information from residents of a community as a representative of our government."

"It is inconceivable that the Census Bureau could be so poorly managed as to hire a convicted sex offender to go door-to-door to collect personal information," Shelby said. "Clearly, Mr. Secretary, your guidelines are not working."

The letter followed news last week that a sex offender in New Jersey had spent two weeks in May interviewing residents while carrying around an official Census badge, bag and list of residents who hadn't returned their surveys.

Frank Kuni reportedly had used fake documents under the name Jamie Shephard to pass an initial name check and receive four days of training.

But an alert resident recognized the 47-year-old from the state's Internet sex offender registry.

Kuni, who was charged with using a fraudulent document to get government ID, was fingerprinted during his first day of training but when Census officials learned on the last day of training that Kuni had been flagged for a previous arrest, he was already out the door with his assignment, Fernando E. Armstrong, director of the U.S. Census Bureau's Philadelphia region, told the Courier News.

He was arrested four days later.

"From our perspective, the process that was put in place and has been used across the country worked in this case," Armstrong told the newspaper, acknowledging that an earlier return of the background check would've prevented Kuni from reaching the street.

In a separate case in Indiana, a volunteer census worker named Daniel Miller allegedly raped and beat a 21-year-old physically handicapped woman after returning to her home in the middle of the night following an interview earlier in the day.

Shelby said that during the 2000 Census, one in four of the 930,000 applicants for the temporary jobs were flagged by the FBI and prevented from working.

"The Census Bureau spent $2.5 million on a Super Bowl advertisement to encourage participation in the Census and has gone to great lengths to assure Americans that they should open their doors to Census workers. The lack of adequate oversight is unacceptable," Shelby wrote.

"What is even more objectionable is that it does not appear from public statements on the incident that the Census Bureau admits fault or even acknowledges that their screening procedures are not working," he wrote.

Diane Amberg · June 02, 2010, 11:04:56 AM

I just read this and had to comment. If people knew they had sent in their form there would be no need to open the door. I'm sorry it happened, but one nutcase does not a trend make, anymore than one gun incident does not a trend make. I'd be more afraid if a priest knocked on my door.

srkruzich · June 02, 2010, 06:20:13 PM

Quote from: Diane Amberg on June 02, 2010, 11:04:56 AM
I just read this and had to comment. If people knew they had sent in their form there would be no need to open the door. I'm sorry it happened, but one nutcase does not a trend make, anymore than one gun incident does not a trend make. I'd be more afraid if a priest knocked on my door.

Well guess what diane, i sent my form in and they still came back here. 3 times. Friend of mine near here sent the form in, had 1 visit about 3 weeks ago gave them the same information and the census taker showed up again today. Now why would they send a census taker out 2 or 3 times when they get the same information every time. The reason is to milk the system. Nothing more nothing less.

Diane Amberg · June 02, 2010, 06:35:33 PM

And you asked number two and three why they came back? And their answer was? ( I have yet to see a census worker around here. We all mailed them back in and that was that.) There must be something about you Kansas folk.

So you took down the enumerator numbers and turned them in, right?

Wilma · June 02, 2010, 08:10:10 PM

I mailed mine and I have yet to have a census taker knock on my door. I must have done something right.

Diane Amberg · June 02, 2010, 08:28:16 PM

So Steve is saying Kansas people are dishonest. Gee, that's a shame.

srkruzich · June 02, 2010, 08:28:27 PM

Quote from: Diane Amberg on June 02, 2010, 06:35:33 PM
And you asked number two and three why they came back? And their answer was? ( I have yet to see a census worker around here. We all mailed them back in and that was that.) There must be something about you Kansas folk. So you took down the enumerator numbers and turned them in, right?

No i actually told them to git. Don't care who they are or what they want. Just don't bother me.

srkruzich · June 02, 2010, 08:34:25 PM

Quote from: Diane Amberg on June 02, 2010, 08:28:16 PM
So Steve is saying Kansas people are dishonest. Gee, that's a shame.

Well its obvious if someone is filling in timesheets and not working the hours they claim, yeah their dishonest. And i suspect that if it is happening in NJ its happening in East podunk kansas.

Diane Amberg · June 02, 2010, 08:49:11 PM

So you could have done something about it and chose not to.

You let them off the hook. If you didn't take action, why complain? You allowed them to keeping on being fraudulently paid.

Here was a chance to put action behind your words and yet you didn't? Unfortunately that's exactly what most people would have done. It's much easier to talk but do nothing. Are you going to call the local office and find out why they are paying people to keep returning to your address when you mailed the form in? Did your friend follow up? I hope so.

Lookatmeknow!! · June 03, 2010, 05:48:45 AM

I actually had 3 stop by my daycare and they were 2 older people, not trying to say anything mean, that were really nice. The one man didn't realize that no one lives here, so all he told me to do was fill it out and say that no one lives here, and the other was just asking directions. The other lady was a friend of mine and we didn't fill in our census for our house and she knew were I worked. It was nice, she asked the questions and I just answered them. I can't complain.