Legislative & Judicial Update

Third Party Investigations

In California, the following bill was previously noted as being of possible interest:

SB 1432 (Alpert) - This bill would allow Human Resource consultants to conduct third party investigations of harassment in the workplace. They will not have to be licensed, will not have any oversight, and will allow out of state HR consultants to come into CA to conduct the investigations. This practice has been against the law for the last 20 years, but only has come to public awareness in the last 18 months. This bill was introduced to bring the law in line with practice. This bill has been shelved in Committee and will not be moving this year.

Federal Legislation: The following bill exemplifies the continuing disconnection between the desire of legislators to protect the privacy of consumers and the fact that the closing of information sources and public records only puts the public at greater risk. If someone cannot find out about your history in the community, then you can not find out the history of someone who is doing things to you or your company. It cuts both ways. Certainly as security professionals we have learned that our responsibilities encompass a wide range of tasks which require information to complete. This is particularly true in fraud and other investigations that are a low priority to law enforcement. At the same time that this bill is being considered in Congress, the Secret Service is taking no cases with less than $100,000 in loss and the FBI is referring cases to the Secret Service. This is all at the same time that many law enforcement agencies in the Bay Area either refuse to work these cases or state that the District Attorney's are unwilling to prosecute. Go on the Internet and read the text of this bill, it will certainly be educational.

• S 2328: Feinstein- Identity Theft 
  This bill is attempting to remove access to all types of information on consumers. If passed, security professionals would have difficulty finding witnesses, finding fraud, and confirming Social Security Numbers for background screening. In Section 8 investigative files would be subject to consumer review, including files containing witness and victim names. This bill is currently being heard in committee.
• Follow-up · HR 3404: Sessions- FCRA Changes 
  This bill to exempt many post employment investigations from the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was heard in committee 5/4/2000, no other significant progress has been made with this bill at this time.

Thank you for your interest in this report. Please contact me if you have any questions.

By James S. Cawood, CPP
Legislative Liaison