lol, that kind of stuff should be illegal. As long as an employee doesn't have to go to jail it should not be allowed to fire the employee for anything that happens outside of the workplace, much less blanket automated policies like that one you describe.
And stuff that's gotten dropped should be either erased or at the very least sealed from the public instead of being provided on Google for all eternity.
A lot of this shit is driven by popular demand. There’s a perception that rigorous background checks are foundatational if a corporation is to act responsibly.
Indeed. But there should be some level of common sense in the system. For example, while a sexual offender certainly is not supposed to work in childcare, he still can work flipping burgers or in a factory. A pot smoker may be unfit for driving trucks, but why not as a coder? Someone who got arrested protesting Nazis is someone I'd actually prefer to hire if I could. And so on.
And to make stuff worse we're only talking about arrests here, not actual convictions by a court. How are people supposed to rehabilitate and be productive members of society again when they're basically forced into an eternal life of poorness and criminality?!
The data these checks deal with is garbage, and offenses can be classified in different ways based on jurisdiction, disposition or a dozen other factors. Was that "reckless driving" charge a plead down DWI? Was that battery charge actually a sexual offense that was offered in lieu of victim testimony? Was the arrest mistaken identity?
No HR person will risk getting into the news for making a judgement. IMO the answer is to classify the data so it's not available in most cases.
Germany and Europe in general goes fine with not publicizing arrest records.