La Crosse Police: Background checks essential for trust

You might want to know who’s driving you around.

That’s why some have pushed back against proposed legislation in Madison that would remove local regulation of taxi companies.

That means no background checks for drivers, which is probably not the best idea, according to La Crosse police sergeant Tom Walsh. His department does the background checks on local taxi drivers and the department feels it’s essential to know that history.

“When you start looking at felony convictions, we want to make sure that the people out there working are not going to be committing any further crimes,” Walsh said.

Police also conduct background checks as a license requirements for alcohol servers and resale shop operators, among other things.

“If we continue to push people, when they’re out having a good time, if they’ve been overserved, to reach out to these companies to drive them home,” Walsh said, “I think it’s incumbent we do our due diligence to make sure that the people we’re entrusting to get us home safely at night, are going to get us there safely.”