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Alabama Senator Blasts Census Bureau For Sending Sex Offenders Door-to-Door
May 25, 2010
U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science, sent a letter Monday to the Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke, to express his significant concerns over the Census Bureau’s hiring of a registered sex offender as a U.S. Census survey taker.
This hiring follows Secretary Locke’s testimony before the Subcommittee in which he assured Senator Shelby that the Census Bureau follows general guidelines to disqualify applicants, which specifically includes sexual offenses and crimes against children.
“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 said.
Shelby’s letter came after published reports of two alleged criminals hired by the Census Bureau that conducted door to door surveys. One, a registered sex offender, spent two weeks going door to door this month.
The full text of Shelby’s letter is below.
May 24, 2010
The Honorable Gary Locke
Secretary
US Department of Commerce
1401 Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20230
Dear Secretary Locke,
I am shocked and very concerned over news reports that the Census Bureau employed a registered sex offender as a US Census survey taker. 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.
In a 2009 Congressional hearing, I raised numerous concerns about the Census Bureau hiring hundreds of thousands of temporary workers in a short period of time without appropriate background checks, particularly focusing on the upcoming 2010 Census and the hundreds of thousands of temporary workers the Department would be hiring. In the 2000 Census, twenty-five percent of the 930,000 applicants were flagged by the FBI. If insufficient guidelines or a lack of training and oversight by the Census had allowed these people to be hired, that would have equated to a 1 in 4 chance that the person at the door has been identified by the FBI as having a criminal record. When asked the question about this issue and the upcoming 2010 Census, you stated that the Bureau follows general guidelines to disqualify applicants, which includes sexual offenses and crimes against children, to ensure that “each applicant is an acceptable risk to collect census information from residents of a community as a representative of our government.” Clearly, Mr. Secretary, your guidelines are not working.
It is expected that US federal employees, especially those tasked with a job that collects personal information at people’s homes, be thoroughly vetted. 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. Applicants should not be given credentials prior to results of an FBI background check. 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.
I expect the Census Bureau will take immediate action to rectify their procedures and I look forward to receiving written confirmation from you about the steps the Department of Commerce and Bureau of the Census have taken to ensure that this never happens again.
Sincerely,
Richard Shelby
Comments
9 Responses to “Alabama Senator Blasts Census Bureau For Sending Sex Offenders Door-to-Door”
I know of no requirement to let them come into your house. Simply answer the door the same as you would for the UPS delivery person, the Girl Scouts selling cookies, or the Mormons going door-to-door. When they show their Census ID’s, stay at the door, answer their questions and help OUR community.
As for hiring sex offenders. It is not if they when to the prisons and handed out applications, everyone I know that works for the Census said they were fingerprinted and checked out by the FBI.
REGARDING:
“Yet census workers still came to my door saying that I did not send in my form and they need to do it again.”
I can just picture it:
and the whole time they are looking your home over for valuables and looking lustfully at your children . . . .
Yet they wonder why some don’t like to invite them in.
David with nothing worth stealing,
but still unwilling to share with thieves
Regardless of who shows up at your door, I think the whole program should be looked at more closely. I filled out my census form and mailed it out the next day after I got it. Yet census workers still came to my door saying that I did not send in my form and they need to do it again. I don’t believe the post office was at fault. What a waste of tax payers money doing something that has already been done. Then it makes you wonder how accurate the census figures can be when they have two forms for many households. Maybe they are smart enough to figure out that they have two forms for many households, but then again they could not figure out that the first form had already been mailed in on time. Oh well????
You forget just how easy a sex offender could also come to your house trying to talk you into church, or selling items. I don’t see how the census would be much different, so what if they know your name ?
It sounds like fear mongering , the highest percentage of sexual assaults come from close family members.
Sex offenders cannot be rehabilitated by serving jail time. Sex offenders remain sex offenders throughout their lifetime. It is a mental illness that is incurable.
Senator Shelby is right..sex offenders should have never been hired as census takers! Beware who you open your door to and never leave a stranger in your home if you are alone.
huh…Yeah because sex offenders don’t need jobs right? Its much better to let the state support them with welfare instead of working?
I can’t see how you guys agree to not let them work, if they haven’t paid for their crime then they would still be in jail, if not in jail, and they have completed the sentence , let them move forward, and find work
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It is not that they do not deserve to work. However, a Census worker has information in front of him as to who resides at that residence.Info such as age and sex of each individual. That is the reason a sex offender should not have employment with the Census. (well, my reason)
I do not have any problem with them finding a job. But, it should be a job that better suits them. Not put them in a situation where they might be tempted to harm others.
Yeah because sex offenders don’t need jobs right? Its much better to let the state support them with welfare instead of working?
I can’t see how you guys agree to not let them work, if they haven’t paid for their crime then they would still be in jail, if not in jail, and they have completed the sentence , let them move forward, and find work
I love Sen. Shelby. Our Govenor here in Florida dont care if s-x offenders are walking the streets. He watches Po-n in his spare time.
I wanta move to Alabama.