by Nick Fishman

The great news is that the federal government has announced plans to develop and launch a national database of sexual offender registries compiled of information provided from each of the 48 states that have such a program.  This program will allow U.S. citizens, law enforcement agencies and non-profit organizations to check one database for known sex offenders at no cost.  If the database is able to aggregate real-time data from each of the participating states, this service can do tremendous good in our communities.  For instance, local youth sports leagues can utilize the database before accepting coaches and other volunteers.  Law enforcement personnel have another tool to identify those in the community that might prey upon our children.

Unfortunately, employers are not included on the list of those who can use the information found in this national database.  While statewide sexual offender registry information can still be obtained by employers in the 48 states where it is available, the search can only be done on a state-by-state basis.  This means that as a best practice, employers should continue to search the registry in each state that their applicants have lived, work or gone to school.            

This entry was posted on Monday, May 23rd, 2005 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.