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Patrick has not yet settled on specific legislation, an aide said, but wants to give employers access only to criminal information that is relevant to the job being sought. Under current law, employers approved by the state's Criminal History Records Board can review an applicant's entire record.

"He believes employers must have access to information for positions where the safety of employees, customers, clients, or the public is a concern," said his spokesman Kyle Sullivan. He added that Patrick "supports law enforcement having broad and unlimited access to CORI."

Patrick's support of CORI changes became a heated issue in the gubernatorial campaign, seized on by Democratic rival Thomas F. Reilly and Republican Kerry Healey to paint him as soft on crime.

During a televised debate, Reilly accused Patrick of backing a sweeping CORI bill that would have made it easier for offenders to have their records sealed and allowed drug dealers to cut time off their sentences.

For five months, Patrick was listed as a supporter of that bill on the website of one of the groups pushing the legislation, the Massachusetts Alliance to Reform CORI. After Reilly's comments, a leader of the group removed Patrick's name, saying it was a mistake.

Patrick said at the time that he did not support that legislation, but he never specified what changes he would embrace. He said only that he wants to revise the law so that people with records can make a fresh start and "CORI doesn't defeat their every second chance."

Buoyed by Patrick's victory and the interest shown by his administration in its early days, supporters of limiting access to CORI say they are optimistic that an overhaul will pass this year.

"It's not a question of if, it's a question of when," said Horace Small, of the Massachusetts Alliance to Reform CORI. He said he is meeting next week with Patrick's undersecretary of public safety, Mary Beth Heffernan.

CORI proposals have come up in the Democrat-controlled Legislature year after year, with little success. But advocates like Mayor Thomas M. Menino say that with an advocate in the governor's office, a bill's chances for passage have greatly improved.

"The governor is trying to get a policy in place so that CORI is not a life sentence," said Menino, who has implemented a "second chance" policy that dispenses with criminal background checks for many city job applicants. "We need someone at the helm who is supportive. I believe we will make headway this legislative session."

But any effort to change the law will run into strong opposition from district attorneys and other elected officials who believe CORI information should be more widely available, not less. The state's district attorneys have aggressively fought any move to weaken the law. Patrick's public safety secretary, Kevin Burke, was a longtime district attorney in Essex.

"Employers need to have information on people they're going to hire and potentially put out as their face to the public," said Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz, a Republican. "Would it have been important for Burger King to CORI Paul Leahy before he could murder Alexandra Zapp?" he said, referring to a 30-year-old woman who was stabbed to death at a rest stop in 2002 by a convicted rapist who was working there as a restaurant cook .

Representative Michael Festa, who has participated in discussions with administration officials, is the chief sponsor of a far-reaching package of bills that he says would reduce crime by helping offenders "re enter society and become productive citizens."

Under the bills, the CORI system would exclude information about cases that did not result in convictions and include only information that is "relevant and sensible for the employer to know."

"There's no doubt in my mind that when an employer gets a CORI record and sees a list of things that got this person in court -- regardless of whether the case was dismissed or continued -- it has an impact," Festa said.

Currently, 10,000 organizations have access to criminal records, and 1.5 million CORI reports were distributed last year, according Barry LaCroix, executive director of the Criminal History Systems Board.

This kind of information is critical, Cruz said, for employers to make informed decisions.

"There is a lot of talk about how this affects people's ability to enter back into society," said Cruz. "There should be reentry programs. But why should we change someone's history to get them a job?"

Employers who agree to hire applicants with criminal backgrounds should be rewarded, he said, perhaps with tax breaks, but "I don't think that giving employers limited information helps anybody, and I think it's dangerous."

In Boston last week, the Globe reported that a public works employee who was suspended after allegedly running down a 64-year-old woman with a city snowplow had a long history of drug violations and driving infractions when the city hired him.

The city did not check the record of the worker, Joseph M. MacDonald, because of Menino's new employment policy.

Asked whether he was rethinking the policy in light of the revelations, Menino said: "It hasn't changed my mind."

Andrea Estes can be reached at estes@globe.com

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/02/12/patrick_seeks_to_limit_background_checks/