Thefts Prompt Plan to Check Towing Staffs

Responding to several property thefts from impounded cars, the Sheriff’s Department plans to conduct criminal background checks on all tow-truck operators doing business with county government.

If the proposal is approved next week by the Board of Supervisors, officials would also prohibit towing company employees with certain criminal records from participating in jobs involving the Sheriff’s Department.

Lt. Tom Garner said the department developed the policy after receiving a handful of reports over the last nine months that radios, CD players and other accessories had been taken from cars towed to impound lots.

While it’s unclear who committed the burglaries, “you’d want to make sure that you weren’t hiring people who were convicted of stealing things in the past, or don’t have an alcohol problem or a drug problem,” Garner said. Sheriff’s officials in Los Angeles and San Diego counties already do such background checks.

The practice makes sense because the county already runs criminal checks on its own employees, added Sharon Lightholder, the county’s risk management director.

“Years ago it was an upright industry,” Lightholder said of the towing business. “Now it’s grown a little more competitive.”

Executives with some of the nine tow-truck companies used by the county said they didn’t have a problem with the background checks.

“It’s fine. It’s an automotive industry, which has always had a bad rap,” said Larry Tantillo, manager at Lakeside Towing in Irvine. “So now, they’ll be able to find out we’re clean.”

Gale King, president of Orange County Towing Service Inc. in Anaheim, said his company doesn’t do such research on employees. “I think as an industry it’s still very clean,” King said.

He added that if an employee had previously been convicted of a crime, there is no company policy preventing the person from becoming an employee. “That would be discrimination, wouldn’t it?” King said. “If the person was convicted of a crime and did his time, didn’t he already pay his dues?”

The nine companies tow about 30,000 cars each year for the Sheriff’s Department, which patrols 10 Orange County cities as well as all unincorporated areas.

“It’s a balance between the tow-truck company’s privacy rights versus protecting people who are getting their cars towed,” Lightholder said. “In light of the industry changes,” she said, “I think it is a very appropriate response and a smart way to protect tax dollars.”