What You Need to Know About DIY Background Checks

The ongoing labor shortage has many businesses rethinking their approaches to background checks. An article in the summer 2022 issue of HR Magazine reported that “some [companies] have reduced or eliminated requirements for pre-employment screening with the goal of speeding up the hiring process and tapping a wider talent pool.”

While this approach is understandable given the current hiring environment, companies need to wade carefully into these waters, particularly if they are conducting their own background checks. Should you choose to go it alone, it’s important to understand which resources are publicly accessible, which are not, and the limitations of the information that is available.

For the purposes of this blog, we will focus on three areas most commonly of interest to employers when conducting background screenings: misdemeanors and felonies; sexual offenses; and education.

Misdemeanors and Felonies

The U.S. Department of Justice maintains the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), but the information contained in the NCIC is only available to federal, state, and local law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies. The NCIC is not available to the public. In fact, even professional background search companies are unable to access the NCIC database.

Much of the data housed in the NCIC is provided by county and municipal courts, but there are no requirements for when these entities have to upload information. It could be every two months or every 18 months. So even if you had access to this database, you still might not get all the relevant information about an individual’s background.

At Commercial Investigations LLC, most of our clients focus on county and statewide criminal searches. The good news for companies trying to do their own criminal background checks is that most of the information at the local level is publicly available. The bad news is that you have to know what you are searching for and, even then, you will likely need to navigate different systems and processes to find this data. 

Even if you limit your search to those areas where an individual has lived and been educated (about 80% of crimes take place in a jurisdiction where the perpetrator has lived), very few businesses have the knowledge, resources, and time to do this work in a reasonably thorough manner. 

Third-party providers exist who are authorized to aggregate misdemeanor and felony information for companies in the background screening industry, such as Commercial Investigations LLC. However, these providers are tightly regulated by authorities who limit which types of companies they can work with and for what purpose. The databases maintained by these providers are not available to most businesses or the general public.

Sexual Offenses

A sex offender search is another common component of a background check, and online registries exist at both the national and state levels to house this information. 

Like the NCIC, the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW) is operated by the U.S. Department of Justice. It is the only U.S. government website that links public state, territorial and tribal sex offender registries in one national search site. Unlike the NCIC, however, the NSOPW is publicly accessible.

At first glance, it appears to be a simple and thorough way to search for nationwide sex offender data. But dig a little deeper into the website, and you will find this cautionary language: 

“The search criteria available for searches are limited to what each individual jurisdiction may provide [emphasis added]. Search results should be verified by visiting the individual jurisdiction’s public registry website for further information and/or guidance.” – From the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website.

In other words, the NSOPW may not always sync with the information found in state databases. If you want to cover your bases, you need to also search the applicable state registries. 

It is important to also be aware that the NSOPW only provides location information on Level 2 (moderate risk) and Level 3 (high risk) sex offenders. There is no information in the NSOPW about Level 1 (low risk) offenders.

Online state registries such as the New York Sex Offender Registry only provide Level 2 and 3 information too, but New York will provide Level 1 information to those who call and request it. Keep in mind, if an employee or job candidate has lived in multiple states – some of which you may be aware of, others of which you may not – it may require searches of multiple state registries to get the most accurate picture. You will also need to be careful when searching for individuals who have common names to ensure any information is for the correct person.

Education Verification

If you only take away one thing from this post, never accept a submitted diploma (print or electronic) as proof of a person’s education. Too many organizations make the mistake of accepting these documents at face value, never suspecting that they’ve been forged by the applicant.

One of the major reasons diploma forgeries are becoming more commonplace is the widespread availability of these documents. Job candidates need not scour the dark corners of the internet to find a fake diploma. They can be easily found on major websites such as Amazon.com (see example below)!

If you want to ensure an individual graduated with a degree, the National Student Clearinghouse is a good place to start. The Clearinghouse is the best, publicly available service for degree verification, but it’s not definitive. The language on its own website admits as much:

The Clearinghouse instantly, accurately, and securely verifies postsecondary enrollment and graduation information for students of most [emphasis added] public and private U.S. institutions as well as high school diplomas. – From the National Student Clearinghouse website.

As with many of these national databases, the content is dependent on the institutions that populate it. So while the Clearinghouse is an effective starting point, the best way to verify an individual’s degree credentials is to reach out to the school or university directly. Believe it or not, most institutions are receptive to these requests (though not necessarily speedy in replying). Why? Because they do not want people misrepresenting themselves as graduates and possibly reflecting negatively on the school.

Proceed with Caution

The purpose of this post is not to discourage a company from doing its own background checks. It’s to help you understand that, if you choose this approach, there are limitations to the information you can uncover and potential gaps in the data that are publicly available. 

You should also be mindful of your state’s laws related to “negligent hiring.” According to the website hg.org, “A claim for negligent hiring is founded on the concept that an employer is liable for the harm resulting from its employee’s negligent acts. In analyzing such claims, courts are asked to assess whether the employer exercised reasonable care in choosing or retaining an employee for the particular responsibilities that individual was supposed to perform.”

Regardless of who performs a background investigation, nothing is 100% accurate. However, companies who choose to go it alone may be exposed to greater risks if they are not aware, or able to navigate, the potential pitfalls they may encounter. Understanding which information is available and how to find it may be the difference between selecting the right candidate and making a decision that comes back to haunt you. 

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