Investigation: Ohio background check system unreliable

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio’s computerized background check system has been flawed and unreliable for years, often failing to provide accurate information about convicted felons, according to an investigation by The Columbus Dispatch and WBNS-TV.

The fingerprint-based system operated by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation in the office of Attorney General Mike DeWine has wrongly indicated that thousands of criminals have clean records.

A review of thousands of pages of records by The Dispatch and WBNS revealed ongoing problems with the 15-year-old system that is used for more than 1.3 million checks every year.

Thousands of intertwined criminal-conviction and fingerprint records with processing errors have hung in limbo in the system for months at a time while records of convictions don’t arrive promptly or at all, according to the media outlets.