Details of Rapid City's proposed background-check requirement for ice cream vendors are still being hashed out, but truck operators say they won't have a problem with the new rule if it is implemented.

The proposed ordinance would require criminal background checks before an ice cream vendor could get a peddler's license to operate on city streets.

Essentially, only ice cream vendors currently qualify for such a license because peddlers are prohibited in the city. No one can sell items out of the back of a truck, for example; but an exception exists allowing the sale of "ice cream and other sundries."

For the past several weeks, the city attorney's office has been reviewing the proposal to determine what information can legally be requested. The issue is on today's legal and finance committee agenda, but it could be delayed if more time is needed for that review.

Chuck Wendt, who has operated Fun Food Factory for about three years, said background checks are a good idea because of how many children are attracted to businesses such as his.

"Those little kids, they come running up, and they're just so trusting," Wendt said.

Parents often let their kids run out of the house unattended to buy a treat - something Wendt indicated is the way things used to be done in the past when people didn't need to worry about someone harming them.

"It's sad our society has come to the point where you've got predators out there," he said. "You don't expect it, and you certainly don't want to see anything bad happen, so a background check doesn't bother me any."

Keith Storm has operated Pied Piper ice cream for 10 years, and his daughter and son-in-law operate Mr. Rags ice cream. He believes that background checks are good, but he hopes the city's background check won't be an additional burden, because he and his son-in-law already underwent a background check through the school system.

"I think it's good that they do something like that. But we're both in the school system, and I don't particularly need to be checked again," Storm said. "I know what getting checked means - money."

Storm knows most people who drive ice cream trucks during the warm season and says they are not bothering anyone. But he also is reminded of something his daughter told him about an incident in Chicago in which drugs were being peddled out the back of a truck.

"I don't think that's happening in Rapid City, and it's probably good to have checks. But I kind of feel like I've been pre-checked already," he said. "But for somebody else, it may be a good thing, because we're concerned about protecting the kids. That's what the city is interested in doing, too."

Preventing harm is the whole idea of the proposed ordinance, according to Alderwoman Deb Hadcock.

But the city wants to be certain the information it is going to require will be useful in the background process.

When the ordinance was first proposed in late January, city officials indicated background checks might include a review of local, state and federal arrest records; national crime and sex-offender registries; conferring with other law-enforcement agencies; checking if the individual has reported a crime or been a victim of a crime; and driving history.

Though there has never been an incident reported, and the city council reviews and approves all requests for a license under the exception, council members such as Hadcock say background checks are needed to provide some peace of mind.

"I think it's needed to protect neighborhoods and kids. It's not against any vendor," she said.

Hadcock said because of the nature of the ice cream vending business, she felt uncomfortable approving licenses without knowing anything about the individual applicants. She said that her sister, who lives in Arizona, told herabout an 8-year-old who had been abducted and killed in that state by someone operating an ice cream truck.

The story solidified the issue in Hadcock's mind.

"It's actually a protective issue for the children," she said.

Today's legal and finance committee meeting starts at 12:30 p.m. at City/School Administration Center, 300 Sixth St.

Contact Scott Aust at 394-8415 or scott.aust@rapidcityjournal.com