Credit Where Credit is Due

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My friend Terry Byrd has some insights about credit reports on background checks and I thought it would be good to further clarify my position on them. Credit score alone is not a sole indicator of reliability. Someone who is flippant or haphazard in paying their debts is obviously irresponsible. Others who suffer an unexpected hardship or catastrophic situation beyond their control should not have bad credit used as a disqualifier.
Someone who attempts to make things right and pay his debts, the credit report will not show that information. It will only indicate "Paid Collections" which is a negative. Anything on a credit report other than paid on time every time is a negative. There are only two marks on a credit report, good or bad, they don't take circumstances into account.
That's why there can be serious problem with credit scores being allowed to be used for backgrounds. There are so many reasons someones commercial credit score can be bad, that they have little or no control over, a major illness, divorce, crazy kids, identity theft can all cut your credit rating. Yet the person could still be a decent person and would be a good officer. Bad credit can tell two things about a person. One is that they are irresponsible with important decisions, by spending themselves into trouble or failing to make payments on time. The other issue is someone with poor credit may be an ethical risk as they may be more likely to take a bribe or steal from suspects, or victims. A credit check alone is important, but it should not stand alone; that's what the SGT Says.