Criminal Background Checks

As an employer relying on a third party to run background checks on job candidates or existing employees, you must follow the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Your responsibilities are detailed in the document entitled “Notice to Users of Consumer Reports: Obligations of Users under the FCRA.” Below is a breakdown of your essential duties under the Act. If you have any questions, consult qualified counsel.

On May 2, 2012 Governor Nathan Deal signed into law significant changes to O.C.G.A. §35-3-37, the law that governs expungement, restriction, correction and supplementation of criminal records in the state of Georgia. This legislative reform is aimed at removing barriers to employment and housing for individuals with criminal history in order to reduce recidivism rates in the state. The Georgia Justice Project (GJP) focuses its mission on breaking the cycle of poverty and crime. GJP sites that at the time of their arrest, 90% of individuals are considered below the poverty line.

PreCheck's Vice President of Compliance, Vu Do's latest article discussing the implications of the EEOC's Enforcement Guidance on employers' use of criminal records was published in the March/April 2013 issue of Compliance & Ethics Professional. If you do not currently subscribe to this publication of the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, you may download the complete article here.

Typically, my blogs are devoted to discussing compliance topics, covering emerging regulations, or highlighting best practices. But today, I’d like to share with our readers some of the true thrills of our job. At PreCheck, we identify ourselves as a “background investigations and credentialing firm.” Our tag line is “investigate further.” All of our employees are licensed private investigators. Hopefully you’ve identified the common denominator.

At PreCheck, we’re often asked about criminal record searches whether it be how they are obtained, what coverage they offer the clients we work with day in and day out, and other burning questions.  Our clients aren’t alone; we know the world of criminal records can be a confusing one!  Today (and as part of an ongoing series) we hope to set the record straight and shed some light on this mystical topic by sharing a few basics regarding criminal record searches.  Other related topics coming up in this series will be fingerprinting, as well as the threats that currently exist to criminal rec

Earlier this morning, NBC’s Today Show aired a segment about how employment background screening inaccuracies can cost applicants their jobs. While the examples shared during the segment are unfortunate, they do not represent the overall standard of quality in the industry. More importantly, the practices discussed in that segment do not reflect the manner in which PreCheck conducts and reports criminal records to our clients.

We would like to take this opportunity to address some of the issues raised in the Today Show segment:

You've heard the term and you suspect you know what it is, but what exactly is a social trace, and why is it important?

Background Report Basics

The social trace is a fundamental tool and part of most employment background checks. Let's first understand the standard components of a background check to better grasp the function of the social trace.

Typically, an employment background check consists of conducting some or all of the following searches:

The recent case of David Kwiatkowski, the traveling radiologic technologist who exposed countless patients to Hepatitis C, shines a spotlight on healthcare employment screening practices in general and those of healthcare staffing firms in particular.  Kwiatkowski allegedly stole Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opiate used as a post-surgery anesthetic, and replaced the syringes with saline where those needles were then used on patients, infecting them with Hepatitis C.  Working for numerous healthcare staffing companies, this serial infector moved from state to state, harming innocent patien

A recent study funded by the U.S. Justice Department and conducted by Utica College found that "an estimated 92,000 of the 570,000 registered sex offenders nationwide are using the internet to live freely and seemingly undetected." With today's widespread use of social media across all ages, this statistic can be a startling one.

Effective July 1, 2012, House Bill 1033 (HB 1033) restricts employers and criminal history providers from inquiring about and obtaining certain criminal history information. As a result, employers should be aware that background reports may not provide a complete picture about an applicant or employee given the law's restrictions.