by Jason Morris

Today, we will explore the benefits of the National Database Criminal Search, a service that has kindled much debate over the last ten years. What was once a threat to a comprehensive accurate criminal search has become a valuable tool in employment screening. If you read this past Friday’s post on Countywide Felony & Misdemeanor Searches you would have a good understanding of how an accurate criminal search is conducted in the United States. However, in the past few years National Criminal Searches have improved as they have compiled more and more records.

Before reading further, it is important to read the following disclaimer: We in no way, shape or form recommend the National Database Search as the primary or only resource for conducting criminal background checks. It is simply a valuable complimentary tool for conducting a more thorough search.

These National Criminal Searches are basically aggregates of millions of records from various sources in the United States. These records are obtained by these commercial vendors from several different sources including: County Court Houses, State Departments of Incarcerations, State Record Repositories, Probation Departments, Townships, Sex Offender Registries etc.. This blog posting will not be about why you should NOT use these databases as a standalone search. Instead, it will demonstration why you should consider this type of search IF AND ONLY IF you do it properly.

The Negligent Hiring Doctrine basically says “If you could have known, you should have known”. Adding a National Criminal Search onto a comprehensive County Search is quickly becoming a standard and arguably a good one. Our estimate is that even the best National Criminal Search holds about 5% to 8% of all the reportable offenses in the U.S. . We have done the tests and even when taking a small sample of 300-400 applicants, a few major offenses would have been missed had a National Criminal Search not been conducted. The numbers don’t lie. For the cost of one additional County Criminal Search; major criminal records would have been missed.

There are FCRA implications to consider. Section 613 of the FCRA identifies two ways a CRA can report negative information. The first is to use what is called “Contemporaneous Notice”: basically notify the consumer that something negative was found on the report and to dispute it they must go back to the screening firm to correct it. Many of us, myself included, feel this is an unfair practice and in many cases will unfairly eliminate someone from consideration for a position. The second method is simple; make sure the information is accurate and reportable before reporting it to the end user. This is a practice subscribed to by most of us in the retail employment screening marketplace. We have had many NAPBS discussions about this and most of us agree that this is the best practice and thus the most fair for consumers.

What does this mean in English? When a possible criminal hit is found in the National Criminal Search, take that record and validate its existence by going to the source, the county courthouse. Once it is confirmed that its disposition is accurate and it does in fact belong to the subject you are checking, it will be reported.

In conclusion, when developing the criminal component of your employment screening program, begin with a Social Security Number Trace. Identify all the places the subject has lived, worked and attended school and all the names they have used. Take this information and conduct a Countywide Criminal Search. In addition consider including a National Criminal Search. You have the tools at your disposal. Using them properly allows you to rest easier at night knowing you have a safer working environment.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 7:50 am and is filed under Articles, Background Check Service Spotlight, Employment Screening 101, Series. 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.