ORANGE BEACH, AL – A major concern about Uber for officials on Pleasure Island concerns background checks used by the ridesharing company.

Both the cities of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores listed other concerns such as a business license, vehicle inspections and insurance. Items required of and received by 13 taxi franchises in Gulf Shores and 32 in Orange Beach.

At a Jan. 19 Orange Beach council meeting Acting Police Chief Rob Howard detailed one of those issues his department deals with directly: Background checks on taxi drivers who wish to work in Orange Beach.

“Straight from Uber’s website they use a company called Checker,” Howard said. “They do it off of your Social Security number and they check databases. The issue with it is they go back seven years. They look at violent and nonviolent and everything else. They don’t like the FBI background check that we use. You can get a criminal history all the way back to the 70s if you chose.”

Those background checks could miss some vital information, Howard said.

“Going back seven years you could have been a multiple murderer seven and a half years ago,” he said. “It’s not going to show up on Uber’s background check. Second, you could have been in prison for seven years and two days, it’s not going to show up on your background check because they’re only going back seven years.”

Howard said Uber doesn’t like the FBI checks that have been the “gold standard” for taxi driver checks in Orange Beach. All other taxi franchises operating in the city are subject to this higher scrutiny.

“If you’re going to let them in it needs to be the same background check,” Howard said.