LA Ice Cream Vendors May Need Background Checks

Supervisors considering proposal
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 7, 2014 9:50 AM CDT
LA Ice Cream Vendors May Need Background Checks
   (Shutterstock)

Overreach or a necessary precaution? Los Angeles County supervisors might require ice-cream truck vendors to undergo background checks before they can drive around ringing bells and selling frozen treats to kids, reports the LA Times. The supervisor behind the push, Don Knabe, says his measure is vital to protect children because such vendors typically find many of their customers at parks or similar places where kids are often unsupervised.

"We could be unknowingly permitting dangerous individuals to come into contact with innocent children," he argues. But at Vice, Charles Davis sees it as needless fear-mongering. If there's a supposed crime wave happening in LA or anywhere else involving ice-cream vendors, he'd like to hear about it. "Why stop with ice cream trucks?" he wonders. "What about people who live near a school? Or a park? Or anyone who can ever potentially come in contact with a person under 18—should we not have their fingerprints and retina scans and DNA swabs on file, just in case?" (More ice cream vendors stories.)

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