Dshs Considers National Background Checks Arrest Of Social Worker On Child Pornography Charges Prompts Review

The state’s child protection agency is considering conducting national criminal background checks before hiring workers who supervise abused and neglected children.

The Department of Social and Health Services conducted criminal background checks on its 1,800 social workers who monitor children and adolescents. But the checks were limited to Washington state.

The arrest this month of Harry Pitcock, a DSHS social worker, has some officials calling for broader checks.

Pitcock was fired, arrested and charged with possession of hundreds of photos and videotapes of young boys engaged in sexual activities.

DSHS officials, in announcing Pitcock’s arrest, said his criminal background check was “clean.” But the check did not extend beyond Washington’s borders.

State officials acknowledge they have no routine way of determining whether Pitcock or any other state child protection worker has ever run afoul of the law outside Washington.

Pitcock began working at DSHS in September 1988, just two weeks after he quit his previous job in Texas, where he also worked for the state.

From Aug. 20, 1984, to Sept. 6, 1988, Pitcock worked as a children’s day-care center investigator in Houston. DSHS checked Pitcock’s references in Texas and found no problems, but did not check his criminal history there or at any other previous job outside Washington state.

Washington state officials declined to release Pitcock’s job history, citing privacy concerns.

The investigation of Pitcock in Washington was launched after one of the adolescents previously under his supervision here accused him of sexual abuse. State and county authorities are investigating that claim.

Pitcock, 49, is being held on $500,000 bail in the Pierce County jail on 40 counts of possession of child pornography.

“This case has certainly helped us speed up our thinking process about the need for national criminal background checks,” said Charley Reed, DSHS deputy secretary. “We don’t know whether he (Pitcock) was convicted in any other state or not. But we want to be as sure as we possibly can that people employed in these positions, people who deal with vulnerable populations, are as good as they can be.”

DSHS employs more than 16,500 people, including 1,800 social workers who monitor children and adolescents, Reed said. None is required to undergo a national criminal background check before being hired.

A state law that took effect last week requires nationwide background checks for all new employees of the state’s special commitment center, a 45-person division that supervises hard-core sex offenders.

And a 1995 law mandated that all DSHS contractors who provide children’s services, such as operating foster or group homes, must also undergo national background checks.

But that leaves the vast majority of the state’s social service workers with incomplete criminal background checks if they ever have lived or worked outside Washington state.

Sen. Jeanne Kohl, D-Seattle, says she will push for passage in 1997 of a bill to require national criminal background checks for all social workers hired by Washington state.

Reed supports such legislation, but says issues such as money and workers’ civil rights could stand in the way.

National background checks conducted by the FBI require fingerprints that cost $30 to $70 per person to process, Reed said. And the investigations can take seven or eight weeks to complete.

Moreover, he said, “people don’t necessarily want Big Brother checking out everything they’ve done.”