Murderer slipped through Uber background checks, lawyers say

District attorneys from Los Angeles and San Francisco announced the lawsuit on Thursday.

These Uber drivers nonetheless passed Uber’s background check, according to an amended complaint filed jointly by the San Francisco and Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office against the San Francisco-based ride service company on Tuesday.

One of the drivers cited is a convicted murderer who spent 26 years in prison before being released on parole in 2008. Throughout Uber’s short history, there’s been several instances of drivers with undetected arrest or conviction records, who then allegedly groped, raped and assaulted passengers.

California prosecutors have broadened their civil lawsuit against popular online ride-sharing service Uber, alleging that its background checks missed people previously convicted of murder and sex crimes, court records show.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said in a statement Wednesday, “I support technological innovation“. By contrast, prints of Los Angeles taxi drivers are checked against federal criminal databases.

Ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft have new ammunition in their fight to operate in cities around the world – a study that concludes they could save thousands of lives.

Uber argues that smudged fingerprints can lead to inaccurate results from checks against the FBI’s criminal database.

The latest disclosures by the district attorneys don’t appear to have changed the political dynamics at City Hall.

For anyone following the ridehailing company’s controversies with security issues, this latest revelation about unsavory drivers will perhaps come as no surprise.

The claims fly in the face of Uber’s assurance that it uses an “industry-leading” screening process for all new drivers.

“Within the UK all partner-drivers are absolutely licensed by the native authority As such all of them bear the identical vetting course of all taxi and cab drivers undergo, this consists of an enhanced DBS verify”.

Taxi drivers have repeatedly staged protests over claims that Uber undercuts their business. Taxi companies, however, rely on fingerprint tests, making it possible to pull drivers’ entire criminal history.

The corporate has scrapped with regulators from Houston to Berlin on points from whether or not it’s required to comply with present taxi legal guidelines to the way it handles rider knowledge. The state law governing the service says an option for background checks is for a “third party” to perform them, but doesn’t specifically state who qualifies.

In real numbers, each cab brought in 9% less on average due to an increased number of taxi medallions and stiffer competition.