You may have heard about the two missing boys that were recently found in St. Louis County in the home of their kidnapper…one was missing for four days, the other for four and one half years.
The kidnapper, a convicted sex offender, had been locally employed as a pizza deliverer…entering home after home, on a daily (and nightly) basis.
Should we license pizza deliverers?
If would prevent one child from being murdered, then I am all for pizza delivery licenses! Although, then the cost of a pizza might be out of my price range. How about just background checks instead.
Seriously though, pizza delivery people do not enter homes when the owner is not there. And they usually do not stay in a home long enough to steal papers or case the home for future endeavors.
I am not one to usually endorse the government to get involved in private business matters, but there are times where public safety is more important.
I am not advocating state HI licenses, just background checks.
They are in the home long enough to know if children live there…and to leave with an address…perhaps a name…more…
How do you think that the state can control background checks for a specific occupation, other than to require members of that occupation to identify themselves and to approach the state for…a license? And, what funds (other than licensing fees) would pay for these checks?
There are hundreds of unlicensed professions. To turn all of them over to the control and monitoring of the state to protect that “one child” is not the answer.
Licensing solves nothing.
I didnt say licensing would solve the problem. As you know, I happen to live in a licensing state. I paid for my own finger printing and background check. My opinion that service professionals have a background check is from personal experience, so maybe my views are skewed. At the time of that robbery, my daughter was around 16 years old. I can not describe the anger and terror we felt knowing some a-hole was in her bedroom (and mine) going through her drawers and personal things. And the fact that I paid him (his plumbing company) to enter my house in the first place, added fuel to the fire.
Speaking from a parents point of view and a former crime victim, I dont give a rats as s how much of a hassle it is for service people to have to get a back ground check. If they are going to be in MY house, they better have one. And by service people, I mean plumbers, electricians, window repair,contractors, etc. Before I hire someone, I do check to see if they are licensed and insured/bonded.
I dont have the answer. I wish I did. Just offering up a different point of view is all.
You answered your own question. These A**holes were not dealt with appropriately. As long as they get a slap on the wrist and are let go after serving only a short time or not at all, there is no incentive for them not go out and do the same thing tomorrow. If we dealt with this kind of scum appropriately there would (1) be fewer of them to deal with, (2) there would be fewer of them walking around free (3) there would be more of them walking with a pronounced and profound limp and possibly singing in the tenor section. We do not deal with criminals in this country, we try to rehabilitate them. Our government’s answer is to write new laws instead of enforcing the ones already on the books and we have too many limp wristed judges and lazy prosecutors who will either no seek justice or when the judges get them in court they do not deal with them. Case in point is the scumbag that kidnapped the little girl in Florida, buried her alive after he was done, and his scumbag family members put him on a bus outta state. The prosecutor didn’t do anything to them and the judges is throwing out all of the confession he made. He is a habitual offender. Until we throw out all the bums and start over this is what you can expect. Until we do that, you will just have licensed scumbags coming into your home.
Oh my god, I haven’t thought about it before BUT there are gobs of people in my house or business that probably haven’t been finger-printed or had a national security clearance background check done on them. For instance:
the 20 year old lawn service girls in their cut-off jean shorts & tube tops;
the appliance repair guy that just replaced my refrigerator defrost timer;
the really well built Hawaiian gal that installed my dsl & wireless network;
the really cute fox that sold me ad space in the FSBO magazine;
the guy that cleans my gutters;
the mobile car repair technician;
the girl that delivers my groceries;
the guy that cleans my carpets;
the roto-rooter guy (twice a year);
the HVAC service techician;
the pizza delivery driver;
the computer repair guy;
Man this is scary. With all the stories out there about how these young hoodlums try to get helpless senior citizens like me alone and do bad things to us, we need to get on a program ASAP tp protect the Senior Citizens.
Lets license everyone and anything that moves - that way we’ll be safe. AND to be on the really, really safe side, we need to execute not only convicted pedophiles, etc BUT anyone thats ever had an unpure thought, lied, cheated, broken the speed limit, been nice to realtors, etc OR thats not of the same nationality or religion as we are. Yeah buddy - lets really clean it up.
Dan
What about relatives??
rlb
All Licensing Does Is Give Your State A Bigger Piece Of Your A__! And Stop Worrying Cream Always Rises To The Top.
On CNN this morning the landlord of the guy in Missouri who kidnapped those two boys said that he did a background check and it only revealed a few traffic violations.
Smart criminals will always use the system to their advantage, background checks only serve to give those who demand them a false sense of security and will only work to uncover those who are willing to abide by the law in the first place.
Real criminals will continue to circumvent the law with new identities and their background checks will come back clean. Until we decide to discard the Constitution and Bill of Rights, criminals will forever be able to take advantage of our rights in regards to freedom and privacy and will use those freedoms against us its law abiding citizens. As always I choose freedom and personal responsibility over destroying constitutional liberty by maintaining a cache of loaded high-powered weapons; believing in my heart of hearts that is is always better to be judged by twelve then to be carried by six.
Well that settles it for me. All children must immediately become wards of the state and be housed where they can be protected from anyone who may harm them. I see no other way to insure their protection.;-)
Cheryl, I don’t want to pick on you specifically so please excuse my absurd comment above.
But that kind of thinking is how we came to have laws that consider it it “under the influence” to drive with a 0.08 Alcohol level in one’s blood. (no I don’t have a DUI) M.A.D. will not be satisfied until NO Alcohol is the law. Now we have commercials using tobacco settlement money to try and convince us that second hand smoke is a deadly killer. (no, I don’t smoke) In many states you “Must” wear a helmet to ride a motor cycle(no I don’t have one).
Where does it end? It suggest that it doesn’t. :mad:
We are a society that is extremely risk adverse and hell bent on making the world it evermore “safe”. This is an illusion at best and dangerous at worst. Just think back even twenty years, Are we really any better off now for all the encumbrances on our constitutional freedoms that have been inflicted on us by well meaning special interests, elected representatives and government officials?
I feel like I’m titling at windmills here so I will step down from my soap box for the moment.
Just a parting request-Please think things through people. We don’t have to be burdened like this in a “free” country.
Licensing in TX I believe has strengthened the profession. If you consider that 2 years ago the requirement to take the State exam was 188 classroom hours and now it is up to 448 hours. Even at that figure it is still not enough. It should be 448 classroom and another 448 in the field.
Stricter requirements properly marketed to the public will help to raise the home inspection industy reputation.
If you ask the average person how they confident they would feel about a CPA designation then you ask them about a licensed or certified home inspector which one would carry more weight? Of course I wish it were our industry but at this point it is not…But we at NACHI are working to change that perception.
I am not an expert, but from where I sit here in Florida it appears to me that Texas has been saddled with one of the poorer models for home inspector licensing because it is controlled by the Realtors.
I do not know how something as despicable as that could have occurred but if you have any insight please share it with us as so we can do whatever is possible to prevent that from happening here.
Joe you will always be an expert in my eyes.
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The basic question goes to convicted felons, who may have permanently lost some of their constitutional rights along theway.
We’re speaking of Constitutional Rights (such as voting and in some instances, obtaining a professional license), but never Human rights, which are irrevocable under our laws.
If one wants a MA or a PHD in HI to inspect an average home get ready to pay for the education
Just remember because of licensing of other trades in other states some of those trades are in VERY short supply and Joe consumer can not afford to pay the higher costs
Just look at the car and electronic industry
Here in Florida quality craftman are from South America because this is what we can afford
Go and rase the bar with needless qualifications that are not related to protecting the client and the client will continue to pay the bill. The rest of us will still take home the same amout of $ after expences – We will just pass it on to our clients
After all we have to have a certain amout to live on after expences which includes the repayment of student loans for education that was crap
Now lets see that the schools get regulated and I don’t want to see information that is 2 hrs spread out to 8 hrs
Trust me I know how to spend 8 hrs on a 2 hr subject esp if I am being payed for 8 hrs
Now lets get back to the subject – If I am going to paint your house which will cost you more than a HI do you think I should have to pass a painting test!! Or take 400 hrs of education on how to paint??
Only so much education is required to inspect the average home so that our clients are protected.
Lets not get this blown out of the park
Look at it this way — You have three hrs to inspect a 3 BR home and your can use TEN inspectors with 20 years of exp which is 30 inspection hrs. Do you think that the report would be any different than one inspestor working 3 hrs that just did his first inspection with good computer software??
With good computer software I can put a person that just got off the boat out doing inspections — and the software is getting better
Licensing is a joke
rlb
That has yet to happen. Licensing does little to nothing to “raising the bar” or influencing the quality of the home inspector in the states that have it, according to the only survey ever done on this (in Ohio, as I recall).
To the contrary, licensing has lowered the bar and established the very minimum basic standard in the state as the pinnacle of achievement. In the eyes of the state, the guy who passes the minimum standard is equally competent and equally qualified to inspect a home as is a 35 year grandfathered veteran.
Most (I believe ALL) states require fewer CEUs than most home inspection associations.
No, Richard, there are no “bars” being raised by licensing. To the contrary, licensing in effect is a “dumbing down” of the profession.
Licensing solves nothing.
Ahh James,
It is really simple. If the State you live in regulates Home Inspectors then you are bound by law to do someting ie. States SOP.
If you live in a State with NO licensing( like you) then you are bound by nothing and you can be a patholigest one day and a Home inspector the next. It is obvious that our proffesion needs regulation the problem is who should regulate it??
All true profesionals have State or Government standards. I hate to think that you as a true proffesional would baulk the standard.
I have over 600 hrs of CE and my State requires none, but how many hrs. does your State require?
Sorry, Todd. You missed the mark, again.
In an unlicensed state, the consumer gets to say who is qualified by determining who they will and will not put to work. In licensed states, that decision is made for them by politicians influenced by their lobbyists.
No true professional needs a government to tell people he is professional. The market will determine it. Those who fear what the consumer will decide on his own will want to hide behind some “credential”.
I love watching you Arizona guys setting up each other in televised “sting” operations…to try to get the consumer back involved by creating a need for them to check out the “licensed” professional before they hire him…Is it working yet?
James you seem to be an slightly slow.
The State or the Fed govern all of the Professionals. I am talking Contractors, Engineers, licensed trades etc. and you are seemingly putting HI’s below or above this excepted method of determining competence. Do you really want a person inspecting your 1945 house that has nothing except a biz card???
I will admit that AZ has fairly laxed rules as far as it goes, but at least you must do something to be a HI as in your State you have to do nothing.Any fool can be a HI.