Hiring Employees: How to Perform a Criminal Background Check
Background checks are a necessary tool in today’s sometimes violent and certainly litigious society. If a rug installation company was to hire an installer, who eventually rapes and kills a client, then the rug installation company would be held libel for the animals actions. This example is one that happens all too often.
It’s common sense to require employment background checks for school volunteers, coaches, teachers, janitorial staff and really, employees of all kinds. As a small business, one the worst thing you can do is hire an employee who becomes a legal liability or has a history of crime that comes back to bite you.
There are two ways of going about getting a criminal background check for employment:
#1 Private companies: These are information brokers who have huge databases containing public records and records from private sources. The information on a background check might include all the addresses you’ve lived at, those you are related to, marital status, social media profiles, current and past employers, criminal histories, driving records and credit. There is also a litany of other information that may or may not be 100% correct. These pre-employment background checks are generally a guide, but not absolute. A quick search on “Background Check” will provide dozens of resources.
#2 FBI Criminal Background Check: A true criminal record comes directly from the FBI or an FBI-approved Channeler, An FBI Identification Record—often referred to as a criminal history record or a “rap sheet”—is a listing of certain information taken from fingerprint submissions retained by the FBI in connection with arrests and, in some instances, federal employment, naturalization, or military service. The process of responding to an Identification Record request is generally known as a criminal background check.
The FBI offers two methods for requesting your FBI Identification Record or proof that a record does not exist.
Option 1: Submit your request directly to the FBI.
Option 2: Submit to an FBI-approved Channeler, which is a private business that has contracted with the FBI receive the fingerprint submission and relevant data, collect the associated fee(s), electronically forward the fingerprint submission with the necessary information to the FBI CJIS Division for a national criminal history record check, and receive the electronic record check result for dissemination to the individual. Contact each Channeler for processing times.
Robert Siciliano personal and small business security specialist toADT Small Business Security discussingADT Pulse on Fox News. Disclosures
