Background Checks for Fire Volunteers

Prisoners and inmates are sometimes used to fight fires, but now it seems that some New Jersey ex-cons may not be.

At the suggestion of the Monmouth County Fire Marshal, the council looked into performing background checks for all public safety volunteers.

The new background check policy will apply to all volunteers for the Borough Fire Department. Apparently the background checks will include a criminal records search and possibly fingerprinting, which would mean a check against the New Jersey State Police.  According to the article, the fire department volunteer services do much more than fighting fires, including various activites involving children, such as coaching, etc. 

These background checks should help prevent egegrious crimes against the children involved in the fire departments volunteer efforts. Hopefully, the pure fire fighting efforts won’t be hampered by the new policy