Uber Supports Having New Jersey AG Decide Driver Background Checks

Ride-hailing company Uber says it supports allowing New Jersey’s attorney general to decide what type of background checks its drivers should have to use.

Company spokesman Matt Wing told The Associated Press that the San Francisco-based company supports an amended measure in the state Senate that would give the attorney general 100 days to decide the type and method of criminal background checks for drivers.

The company had threatened to leave the state if lawmakers require fingerprinting and they have aggressively lobbied against those requirements here and elsewhere.

A competing measure in the state Assembly would require fingerprint checks if ride-sharing companies don’t use a check approved by the New Jersey state police.

A Lyft spokeswoman says the company is evaluating the amendment passed at a committee hearing last Thursday.