With so many census workers going door to door, it’s no surprise

Published 7:00 am Tuesday, May 25, 2010

With so many census workers going door to door, it’s no surprise to find one or two bad apples.Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby slammed Commerce Secretary and former Washington governor Gary Locke in a letter after two high-profile incidents involving census bureau workers.In the first, a New Jersey resident recognized the census worker knocking on his door as Frank Kuni, a registered sex offender. In the second, a census volunteer in Indiana named Daniel Miller allegedly raped and beat a 21-year-old physically handicapped woman after returning to her home later in the evening after an interview earlier in the day.Shelby, the ranking member on the appropriations subcommittee that funds the Census, reminded Locke that last year he had promised the bureau had “guidelines” in place to ensure that “each applicant is an acceptable risk to collect Census information.”The Alabama Republican added, “Clearly, Mr. Secretary, your guidelines are not working.”But it appears that, at least in Kuni’s case, the guidelines did work.Kuni reportedly offered an alias in order to slip past the initial name check. Like all government workers, he was also fingerprinted. But by the time the census officials learned that Kuni had been flagged for a previous arrest it was the last day of training, and he was already out the door with his assignment.In his letter, Shelby wrote that it was “inconceivable” that the Census Bureau didn’t catch Kuni before he was sent to citizens’ homes. But given the details of what actually happened, it seems pretty conceivable; inevitable even, given the fact that the census has hired tens of thousands of people to canvass all over the country.