IACS changes background check policy; deputy director calls old practice 'discriminatory'

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Aug. 20 Indianapolis Animal Care Services Board Meeting was contentious.

The tension was caused by a policy change that prohibits adoption coordinators from running criminal background checks on potential adopters through MyCase, the statewide public court records database.

Kelly Diamond, IACS deputy director, said Tuesday the MyCase checks will not return and called the practice discriminatory.

“As far as the MyCase, It’s not coming back,” Diamond said. “Just by the mere fact that people of color are more likely to have records on there, that by itself is discrimination. It introduces biases for things that are not related to a person’s ability to be a good pet owner.”

Diamond refused two times to speak to News 8 in a one-on-one interview to clarify the old policy or provide additional context.

Two IACS employees were recently fired for going against this change, continuing to look, and in some cases, block adoptions from being approved based on the background checks.

News 8 first reported this story on Aug. 7.

Kylee Fox was the first woman to be fired. She said that, to her knowledge, the initial policy told employees to check every potential adopter for any of the following charges:

• Animal cruelty charges within the last three years
• Murder
• Sex offenses
• Domestic violence
• Neglect of a dependent
• Strangulation

She said she felt this put everyone on an equal playing field.

Fox admitted to checking potential pet adopters for a history of animal neglect and cruelty knowing it was against policy. She told News 8 she continued to do background checks after learning a couple with five animal cruelty or abandonment violations readopted their dog after IACS officials confiscated it.

“We expressed our concerns that we felt more like dog distributors because there’s no fees, there’s no background checks,” Fox said.

Makenna Chiddister is another IACS employee fired for checking MyCase, despite telling the shelter she didn’t break the policy.

“I did know Kylee was doing it. I do think it’s something we should do, but I personally didn’t check MyCase,” Chiddister said. “I was fired based on hearsay.”

The two want to see the policy reinstated.

Both of the women attended Tuesday night’s meeting, and many supporters joined them.

“These animals need to have better protection for them so I will continue to try and get this policy reinstated because the vast majority of the public wants it brought back,” Fox said.

Diamond told the crowd that IACS now instructs employees to use Chameleon before an adoption.

Chameleon is an internal Animal Care Services system. It covers Marion County, but only contains data that animal control officers input, according to Fox.

The MyCase system is statewide and has all criminal charges available.

Fox and Chiddister say they believe the policy was removed to help the shelter improve its “live release” numbers without considering if the adopters were fit to be pet owners.

IACS Board Member Chris Roberson also declined two interview requests after the meeting. News 8 was unable to speak to the other board members.

News 8 was unable to find the names or contact information of any of the board members online to contact them to gain further understanding of the policy and situation.