After being forced into homelessness and joblessness for three years now and counting, I was informed by an prospective employer that did a background check using information viewed at www.criminalsearches.com (a free national site) that I had a criminal background. Apparently, I'm told, the City of Brotherly Llove changed computer systems in 2006 and took court ordered expunged arrest records and not only keep it alive in their police computer system but also placed in online where it has been copied to potentially 32,000,000,000 background/criminal sites. This same court stuck a lien, also ordered by a judge to listed as satisfied as unsatisfied on all my credit reports. When I told the police department and the district attorney's office of their error, I was told that it was a mistake that has happened many times. In this case, I'm listed for the world to see as an arrestee for violence, drugs, terrortist threats, and other charges - even though I was found not guilty so that I could seek legal redress against the real criminals. City and State officials state that the damages to my reputation and economics mean nothing to them and it is not important that other Philadelphians be made aware of the magitude of their computer errors. I was dismissed with a letter from the Public Defenders to attach to my resumes and/or present to prospective employers.
In this horrible economy with so many out of work and everyone requesting background checks, they claim zero liability and refuse to act to make me whole. So I am labled for life since no one in authority claims to know how to remove this garbage from the many internet sites that copied or cloned this misinformation. Of course, I'm told the lien will drop off automatically in 2014 reducing my ability to acquire an fair credit evaluation and any other financial service. In the meantime, when I apply for decent housing, I am refused and other than that one prospective employer, all of the more than 5,000 applications I have signed allowing them to do a background check, have either sent me a letter stating they chose to give the position to a better candidate without notifying me of the source of their information used for background/criminal checks. I'm told that Pennyslvania a full disclosure law that would notify anyone of who does the background check and where they found their information so that these errors could be prevented or corrected.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and City Council members Vincent Hughes and Louise Williams-Bishop(a church woman) hide behind a "sunshine law" allowing them to freely publish court records, whether they areexpunged or correct. Am I living in America! I was forced to return to Philadelphia after relocating to Florida to deal with this because court personnel don't have to deal with non-residents (I was born and raised in Philly) and I have had no success. Meantime, wages are not accumulating and my social security benefits will suffer. I am forced to seek housing with slumlords who charge me hundreds extra based on background informaion. Even my car insurance was raised $1,000 after a background check. And the big heads and little brained politicans won't answer my calls or visits and I'm told that I have to find and spend thousands on an attorney to clear my name and reputation.
This stinks!!! What happened to justice in the city where the constitution was drafted. Have we really become that naive that we are to believe the government can say or do anything without recourse to the innocent while true criminals walk free. Something is very wrong with this picture, yet the public laugh and point fingers at me protesting because most don't know that something as simple as a traffic ticket will put them on this same site. I'm embrassed to be considered a resident of this city and state and feel that all the state and city politicans should do their job and protect all innocent citizens. Unfortunately, they're still getting paid from my tax dollars of an excellent work history of 40 years and like the police have a wall of silence that theirfront desk staff members are the only ones to benefit from. I can only hope for God's blessing of strength while I am tramatized over and over. City of brotherly love, pay to play, and injustice.
If you had no idea that county, city, and state governments online databases may have leaked your personal information and disregarded your privacy as an American citizen under the constitution 4th and 14th Amendments, I strongly urge you to start researching at www.criminalsearches.com which is a 50 state dump for all such public records. I hope you will not find yourself on a website but if you do, you will have to repeat whatever process your local government has and hope that they do their job right, the second time.
I have also started a petition at www.change.org/criminal justice requesting a law for full consumer disclosure so that when someone does a background/criminal check, you are notified of who they are, the purpose of the check and what and where the information they used is. This way, you would have the opportunity to review and correct misinformation before it impacts your reputation and economics. Please take a moment to add your name to send letters to these politicals to let them know of the urgency of this matter. Thank you for your support.
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