“It seems every day brings another story of someone arrested for or convicted of stealing from a volunteer fire department. We’re not talking about the punks who break in and swipe some tools. We’re talking about the inside jobs, when one of our own brothers or sisters makes off with a sizable chunk of change. It is often perpetrated over years with the tally in the tens of thousands of dollars.

“To help fire departments get a handle on this, I talked with Phil Stittleburg who heads up the National Volunteer Fire Council. In addition, Stittleburg is a long-standing volunteer fire chief and a practicing attorney, making him uniquely qualified to look at this problem from several points of view.

“What can departments do in the hiring process to reduce the likelihood of bringing on someone who will eventually steal?
First, we need a good, solid policy of how we’re going to bring people in and what the qualifications are. Verify what’s on the application. If the person says he’s an EMT, you want to see the license. You want to look at the driving records. I like to see references and talk to those folks and see what other departments or employers have come up with.

“We can get into things that go deeper like finger printing, drug testing and checking for criminal convictions. That can be a touchy area because a lot of states have laws against criminal-record discrimination; you can’t decline to hire somebody just because they have criminal convictions.

“You may have to demonstrate that the conviction was an offense that may be relevant. For instance if the EMT candidate has a history of sexual assault, that’s probably a good basis not to hire him. On the other hand, a disorderly conduct because he got unruly at a football game may not be.

“There’s nothing illegal about requesting that information, but what you do with it can be tricky. I think it is a good idea to request that information if for no other reason than to verify what’s on the application. If the person indicates no criminal convictions, then you do the background check and find there’s been three criminal convictions, that is a basis not to take the person on. Even though their criminal actions may not be related to the job, just the act of lying on the application is a valid reason for denial of employment.”

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