Dear Liberty...Your Questions, Answered

Liberty received a great email the other day from a concerned employer:

"My current vendor for pre-employment background checks gave me an All-Clear on a candidate I screened in May 2009. The person has been employed at my company since then, but was recently arrested, ON SITE, for their active warrants!! When I contacted our vendor about it, they said the type of investigation we elected to implement didn't include the outstanding warrant! Of course, our company had no choice but to discontinue service, but my question to you is: How is it possible this wouldn't show up??"

There are many types of pre-employment criminal investigations, and they are not created equal. The type of search performed on your employee is not comprehensive and that is how records can be missed.

Many companies, especially in this day and age, choose these types of searches, called database searches, because they are less expensive. Be wary, often, when you're paying for less, you're getting less.

Liberty utilizes these database searches as well, but for very different reasons. Our QuickCheck search is a national criminal records search, but Liberty uses it as a pre-screening tool, a stop-gap measure that has the possibility to eliminate candidates in a matter of minutes.

Candidates that clear through the QuickCheck are sent on to perform a deeper more comprehensive background investigation that thoroughly searches criminal records from counties the candidate has resided in, and looks under any alias name we can find on the candidate.

Of course, that deeper investigation costs a legitimate amount more than our QuickCheck, but our clients know what they've got as soon as we do: peace of mind.

submit your questions here.

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Missing Convictions, Why Database Searches are not Foolproof

It is always interesting to discuss what people do for a living. How we all come together from different walks of life and how each of participates in making the world work in it's strange and unique way.

I love being among a group of people that are casual acquaintances. Inevitably, the subject of profession arises. Pre-employment background investigations always receives a raised eyebrow or two, and the "wink" and elbow jab - "Don't pull my information! You don't want to know!"

I tend to think these types of comments are usually joking, however, one night a casual acquaintance had several probing questions for me. Turns out he was able to obtain a job though he had a felony level conviction on his record. He was probing me to find out how that could have happened,

"It's been so hard finding work since it happened, I know they did a background check, but I didn't disclose the information! And they didn't find it!"

The company probably ran a criminal "Database" search. Database searches are inexpensive, making them a great pre-screening tool. But more and more, especially as the economy continues to struggle, companies are relying solely on these searches to weed out former criminals.

But obviously, they're not catching everybody. Lucky for a few of the unemployed. When I asked my acquaintance the nature of his crime? Felony level fraud: Identity Theft.

He is currently employed at your local bank.

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Changes for Criminals Seeking Employment

While still on the campaign trail, one of the many promises Barack Obama made were he to be elected was to break down employment barriers for those with a criminal record.

According to report from SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, more than 80% of employers perform pre-employment background checks. With growing technological advances, tracking and tracing criminal records has become easier than ever.

• In 2006, nearly 81 million criminal records were on file in the states, 74 million of which were in automated databases.


• Another 14 million arrests are recorded every year.

Most employers are unwilling to hire an ex-offender. FCRA laws allow felony records to be reported from the 18th birthday on. Even if person who committed a felony crime at the age of 18 hasn't committed a crime for 20 years they are unlikely to find employment.

Most people would probably agree that there should be some point in time after which ex-offenders should not be handicapped in finding employment. The question is when, precisely, should this occur?

Currently, employers have no empirical guidance on when it might be considered safe to overlook a past criminal record when hiring an ex-offender for a particular job. Employers generally pick an arbitrary number of years for when the relevance of a criminal record should expire: five or 10 years, for example. It goes without saying that different types of employers will have different sensitivities about the potential employee’s criminal record. Those serving vulnerable populations like children and the elderly would be particularly sensitive to a prior record involving violence, while a bank hiring a teller would be particularly sensitive to property crimes. A hiring crew for a construction company might be far less sensitive to most prior records.

A huge study is being funded to test exactly when the turning point for criminal offenders exists. Though the study is ongoing, preliminary results are profound. Criminals have been found to significantly lower their probability to commit another crime, the probability can get as low as an average citizen who has never committed a crime.

The study can be found here.

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Criminal Statistics Tell the Truth about Violent Crime

If you ever wonder why you run background tests, or why someone with a violent criminal past is considered an undesirable employee, the "Homicide Victim and Suspect Analysis Report 2008" is a good reference. The report is a clinical study of violent crime centered on the city of Baltimore, MD.

It chronicles over 300 violent deaths in the city and categorizes them by location and type of death: by handgun in the street.

Of the 107 suspects arrested for violent crime, a whopping 94 had criminal records mostly consisting of drugs, guns, and violent crimes. 36 of those were under probation at the time of their crime.

Of 234 victims, 194 had criminal histories.

If you want to keep violence out of the workplace, keep the criminals out!

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Don't Rely on State Databases for Criminal Records

There are dangerous shortcomings in Texas' DPS Computerized Criminal History database. In a study done by Imperative in October of 2008, found that the DPS was missing 36% of known criminal records- records ranging from simple theft to capital murder.

This means there is a one in three chance of missing criminal records using these databases. Cases that ended in dismissals were also excluded.

Employer often uses this database and other state databases such as Texas' to make important hiring decisions. They are inadequately maintained, and organizations that are concerned about providing a safe (and profitable) work environment should be wary when using them.

Utilizing a County Criminal search is the fail safe way to find records. Using the county level courts and searching every county a potential employee lived in is the only way to ensure you are getting the most thorough background check.

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