POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd wants certain businesses to test future employees to make sure they're not child predators.
Right now, it's illegal for businesses to give a potential employee a lie-detector test, but if Judd and Rep. Dennis Ross get their way, a proposed bill will allow businesses who work closely with children to give the tests to job applicants.
Judd and Ross said background checks can only do so much. By adding the lie-detector testing, it would give companies a chance to catch predators before it's too late.
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If passed, they said the bill would amend the Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988, which made it illegal for companies to give lie-detector tests to applicants.
The new bill would change that and allow private companies whose employees work around kids to have potential employees given lie-detector tests, even though giving lie-detectors tests are now illegal and aren't even admitted in court as evidence.
Judd and Ross believe it would give companies the tools to find out if someone applying for a job could be a danger to kids.
"It's not the sexual predators and offenders that we worry about the most," said Judd. "We know who they are, we keep track of them. We're worried about that overwhelming number of people that we have no idea are out there, crawling around every day, looking to groom our very young children and take them as sex slaves."
There are privacy concerns with the bill.
Officials said the questions could only be focused on asking applicants about encounters with kids and couldn't be used for any other investigations.
They also said background checks aren't enough and that the test is another tool to help weed people out.
WFTV
