LA Leaders Want to Be First to Fingerprint Uber and Lyft Drivers

LOS ANGELES, CA - Mayor Eric Garcetti and two City Council members called on a state commission today to allow the city to institute a fingerprinting background check program for ride-hailing companies, similar to those done by taxi companies.

Garcetti, Councilman Paul Krekorian and Council President Herb Wesson sent a joint letter to the California Public Utilities Commission asking for permission to start a pilot program in Los Angeles that would require ride- hailing services such as Uber and Lyft, as well as limousines, vans and shuttle services, to undergo background checks using fingerprinting data.

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The city currently requires taxi drivers to submit to Live Scan fingerprint background checks "so that their provided identification can be cross-checked against law-enforcement databases for the purpose of determining a driver's criminal history and verifying driver identity," the mayor and two councilmen wrote.

"The opaque nature" of the existing background checks used by the transportation companies "is a cause for concern for the riding public," they said.

They added that even if those checks are robust, "their best practices are subject to change at any time without the backstop of law or regulation. Without gathering a significant pool of control and test data, we do not believe that the commission or the city can adequately respond to the rapidly changing landscape of this marketplace."

Under the proposal, ride-hailing, van, shuttle and limousine drivers would need to get fingerprinted and background checked under the state's Department of Justice screening system.

They are also proposing a comparison of background information obtained with and without fingerprinting, particularly to determine the number of people who had results that were incomplete or inconsistent when the existing non-fingerprinting background checks were employed.

They also want the operators to disclose how many drivers were denied employment and why, and to discuss how drivers appeal the decisions for rejecting them.

City News Service