Do you have convicted criminals working with or for you?
Should I be worried about the criminal background of my nanny or child's coach?
Do any of the teachers at my child's school have a criminal past?
The answer is probably YES.
Now some may say that's not possible because I know for a fact that my work, my child care, and all the teachers and coaches go through a background check.
The answer is still YES.
How do I know this?
I am fairly well known nationwide for performing professional background checks. For over the past 10 years I have performed over 20,000 professional background and record checks. In those years, I have come across many frightening cases. Including numerous cases found on coaches and nannies that come back with duis, and drug offenses (I dont go a week without seeing one of those), felons who have been put in charge of collecting or handling money for their employees, teachers who were charged with rape and drug offenses, and even a case where I checked a person who was convicted of murdering a child who was hired at a pediatrician office while on parole. What is most frightening about these cases, is that I find that almost all of them include the person passing a previous background check to attain their position.
So how does this happen?
Today many companies, youth agencies, school institutions, and individuals are cutting cost and are relying more and more on database background check agencies to perform basic checks. These background check companies range anywhere from public companies such as Intelius, US Search, etc, to your more popular public and private database companies such as Choice Point & Lexis Nexis (Choice Point appears to be the current popular choice for Youth Associations (coaches) and School Institutions (teachers)).
Often these basic checks provided by database companies are inexpensive ranging anywhere from $10 - $40. Their basic background check will generally check limited nationwide and state criminal databases, department of correction records, and the sex offender registries.
For database information, database companies rely mainly on state repository, PRIORS (Public Record Indexes of Record Searches), and national public database systems. The problem with this is that most counties dont send criminal court records to a state repository or public database. In fact, nearly 70% of all crimes are not reported to these databases. Some states are worse, such as Indiana, in which over 90% of the crimes are not reported.
These companies also check criminal information from state department of correction records and sex offender registries. Department of Correction records often times reveal no criminal background. Most state agencies only report active inmates while nearly all do not report county imprisonments. The sex offender registry database that is run by local government agencies is a reliable a database, however the problem with most registry databases currently are that most of them are way behind on updates. New offender information and changes are taking way to long to show up in their systems.
So what is a reliable background check that is available to the public?
The most reliable background check is one that not only checks multiple databases for more comparison data, but also checks criminal court case records. The most reliable source of criminal records is directly from the county court in which the crime was committed.
I would also advise a check the verifies social security number information, date of birth, aliases, and address history so you can be sure that the person the background is being run on is the correct person. There is also checks that check driving records, credit, and property information.
Now these type of checks may cost a little more than the 10 to 20 dollar database company search, but you will be confident to you know whether a person is actually a criminal or not.
What if our company or organization is unable to afford the higher cost checks?
Here are some of my suggestions to companies concerned with cost:
- Perform checks only on individuals who you plan to hire or put in position. Passing a background check should be the last process performed before position placement.
- Perform different type of background checks based on position. For example, its not necessary to perform a driver license check when driving is not required for the position, or running a credit check when it is not applicable.
- Perform your own reference checks. If you have the time, why pay for someone to check with past employers, education institutions, and character references. Plus my experience has shown that references are willing to divulge more information to a hiring company than a outside company that performs background checks.
- Have your future hires, or placements share the cost. Most persons are willing to share the costs if passing the background check is the last step to attaining the position.
If you should have any question or concerns on this post, or if you are interested in having background check run on an individual, please contact us.
Ken Burbridge Licensed Detective - State of Indiana
President/Owner - Burbridge Detective Agency
Accredited Member - Better Business Bureau
Member - Nat. Assoc. Investigation Specialist
Burbridge Detective Agency, LLC
1457 E 84th PlaceMerrillville, IN 46410
Phone - 219-629-3260
Fax - 219-940-3926
Web - http://www.burbridgepi.com/
Detective License #: PI20700205
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