Putting criminals on the payroll

University City District employees are everywhere around campus. For the most part, they provide a valuable service in maintaining the neighborhoods around the University and providing additional security for everyone who lives in the vicinity.

It's too bad that one bad apple had to spoil an otherwise commendable reputation for service.

Crew Warrenton was that bad apple. And the UCD subcontractor that hired him should have seen it coming. Warrenton has reportedly been arrested more than 20 times. His rap sheet includes 12 convictions and 23 various aliases.

Shouldn't this have raised some red flags when Warrenton was hired in the first place? Apparently not at OneSource, the nationwide janitorial services outsourcing firm.

OneSource, with whom the UCD has worked for eight years without incident, jeopardized the safety of everyone on campus by hiring a maintenance worker with a dubious background.

Not everyone with a criminal record is dangerous, and many of these people are just looking for -- and should be given -- a fresh start. But 12 convictions?

The first page of the OneSource employment application includes a question about criminal history, and states that "A felony conviction will not necessarily be a bar to employment."

That's a fine policy. If only the company would pay a little more attention to it. The safety of thousands of people on this campus is at stake.

The Pennsylvania School Code requires background checks for any applicants, including those of independent contractors, who have direct contact with students in public schools. While this is a different situation -- Warrenton was a maintenance employee, not a University City ambassador or security officer -- the same common-sense practice of checking criminal records should apply.

Penn is not unfamiliar with this type of thing. In 2002 the University hired a Quadrangle mailroom employee who had an outstanding warrant for aggravated assault. That same employee was later arrested for mail theft, prompting a review of Penn's policies on background checks.

Since Penn is so strongly linked with the UCD, it should use its muscle to affect changes that will keep us all safer.

The organization has pledged to use background checks on all future hires -- it currently reviews records for security guards who are employed by another subcontractor -- but the UCD owes it to us all to complete checks on all current employees as well.

Penn students and staff want to feel safe in their environment, and UCD is a large part of that. The trust in that organization will be eroded, though, if they are offering their uniforms to criminals.

This may have been an isolated incident, but it is the duty of all agencies that serve the Penn community to ensure that people who pose a threat are not on the payroll.

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