Gypsy Cops II

(NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Often silenced by confidentiality agreements, police departments sometimes won't disclose important information about candidates trying to get another job at another department.

The fear is in getting sued. We're told by many in law enforcement that extensive background checks being done on officers wanting to move from department to department are incomplete or not done at all.

That's something the State of Michigan and some lawmakers are looking to change immediately.

The members of the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards or MCOLES are the men and women who watch the watchmen. These people decide who gets a license to carry a badge and pack a gun.

They are charged with watching for men like Brandon Balis, an Ionia County deputy who admitted to having sex on the job in 2002 with a high school student on a ride-along program. He's now a sex offender and out of law enforcement.

Ionia County's Sheriff believes Balis' former employers didn't fully disclose everything about him when he was hired. The sheriff thinks he was fooled.

"I suspect that I may have been, but [it's] nothing I could verify," said Ionia County Sheriff Dwain Dennis.

We uncovered more than a dozen other officers who go from department to department with troubled pasts in tow. We wanted to know what the state was doing to prevent officers flying under the radar.

"You mentioned some of these individuals that have been revoked and multiple agencies. We're now being able to serve as a pointer system back to those other agencies so a wealth of information sometimes exists there," said Ray Beach, MCOLES Director.

There is an online database now available to every agency for tracking officers in a paperless system. It is a step in the right direction perhaps, but it doesn't force a department to talk to another department in the hiring process.

"One of the things we're looking for is some immunity for officers. Chiefs and sheriffs have asked us to consider putting some immunity in there so they can release for public safety purposes any employment situation. That immunity could free up employers in public safety to talk frankly about candidates, to move past the confidentiality or separation agreements, to prevent one bad officer from going to multiple departments," said Beach.

The Grand Rapids Police Department is widely considered one of the best departments in the state for background checks.

"If someone's putting up roadblocks, that's a red flag for us and we're certainly going to dig harder," said Grand Rapids Police Chief Kevin Belk.

We asked if every department does that, going that extra step.

"Unfortunately they don't," said Belk.

MCOLES wants to mandate extensive background checks and to force employers to disclose instances of misconduct. Right now its lobbying legislators to make it state law.

"I think that is going to be a key piece, quite frankly, we have to allow for that to happen, and right now for whatever reason that is not happening," said Beach. "Some legislators aren't so sure the state should be interfering with an entity's human resources department."

"I think by mandating or dictating through the legislative process I would be extremely cautious. I would strongly encourage people in my community and I know my law enforcement officials consistently communicate and meet. Other lawmakers think its necessary," said Mike Sak (D) Grand Rapids.

"Yeah absolutely. I think you know what I should be able, as a former employee, to give an accurate description or my opinion of how you were as an employee," said Mike Nofs (R) Battle Creek.

Right now there is no certainty that every department is following the rules to make sure each department's represented by the finest in law enforcement.