Many
companies think that a statewide background check is more complete than
searching the counties that an applicant has lived and/or worked. "In
some cases, that is not correct." Bill Whitford, CEO of S2Verify.
"Many states are not on a unified court system and rely on the county to
report the records to the state. However, in many instances, this
simply does not happen."
It is important to understand each state and then determine if a statewide is the best search. That is why companies need to contract with knowledgable and experienced Employment Screening companies, like S2Verify. We are amazed at the lack of knowledge among prospects about what they are ordering and how it impacts their business.
In one instance, one of our competitors was selling statewide searches and using a database. However, they weren't informing the company that this was a database search. In fact, they were offering a statewide search in states like CA that don't offer a statewide search.
Here is an article that proves you need to be knowledgeable about each state.
It is important to understand each state and then determine if a statewide is the best search. That is why companies need to contract with knowledgable and experienced Employment Screening companies, like S2Verify. We are amazed at the lack of knowledge among prospects about what they are ordering and how it impacts their business.
In one instance, one of our competitors was selling statewide searches and using a database. However, they weren't informing the company that this was a database search. In fact, they were offering a statewide search in states like CA that don't offer a statewide search.
Here is an article that proves you need to be knowledgeable about each state.
Texas background checks let felons slip through cracks in surprising numbers
September 29, 2011
- Like this? Subscribe to get instant updates.
Courts and prosecutors throughout Texas are supposed to quickly submit convictions for arson, burglary, and more serious crimes but the report by the Texas Auditor's office finds more than a-quarter of the arrests are not showing up on state background checks because local police agencies and county courthouses are not sending that data to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
That means if one felon is convicted, the state database won't include it for months because the local police and courthouses are letting it sit on a shelf for months before sending it to the state to be included in the DPS crime database.
That means if that criminal is applying for a job driving a school bus, or trying to enter the military service, or applying for another sensitive security position, a background check won't show the conviction because the most comprehensive statewide crime database doesn't know about it.
Most background checks, especially those by private employers and small government agencies, do not check records at the local level. They won't scour every single courthouse where an applicant has lived, but instead rely on each state's centralized database of all criminal convictions.
Local police and sheriff's departments are also required to submit information for arrests made for certain crimes, even if the person hasn't been convicted yet. Those are among the crimes not being reported to the state, according to this report.
Today's audito report digs into all arrests made statewide in 2009 and it found that more than a-quarter of the crimes had still not been reported to Texas DPS as of January of this year.
In a February 2006 audit, 71-percent of the crimes were being reported by prosecutors and courts. This time around, those agencies reported 73.68 percent of the arrests made in 2009. That's only a slight improvement.
The audit explains,
"Data in the DPS's Computerized Criminal History System is not complete, and users may not receive a reliable result from criminal history background checks that are conducted based on the data in that system."Even though Texas law requires prosecutors and courts to send that data in within weeks, DPS has no authority to slap a fine or any other punishment for agencies that are letting its criminal convictions sit on the shelves for months or years.
"A significant number of prosecutor and court records are not reported to DPS, which impairs the quality of information that DPS uses to conduct criminal history background checks,"the report continued.
Here's a serious illustration of how bad it is:
State background checks are standard when a new inmate arrives in the state prison system, but when 1,634 inmates showed up for prison or probation in November 2010, they had clean records.
That's right, convicted felons on their way into prison were listed as having no criminal record in the state DPS crime database because the local authorities hadn't yet submitted the information as they're required to do within days.
Some are required to be submitted within 7-days and others must be submitted within 30-days, but it's not always happening at all.
Today's report urges DPS to improve the timeliness and accuracy of the records it receives from local authorities, but it didn't say how that should happen since DPS is powerless to issue fines or any other sanctions for it.
The Tarrant County District Attorney's office is listed as failing to submit records, and the report points out that the Harris County District Attorney's Office and the Harris County District Clerk are also both falling short on submitting details of cases to the state crime database.
Each office said the reason this is happening is because some criminals don't have state identification numbers attached to their records, which causes them to slip through the cracks. If the state ID number is attached at booking or later before trial, they are automatically sent in when there is a conviction or other disposition. If that number is missing, it just doesn't happen like it's supposed to, they said.
They also blamed courts for failing to submit some paperwork about the disposition of some cases. Without that paperwork, those agencies don't know there's anything additional to report to the state.
Between September 1, 2009 and November 30, 2010, there were 65,424 arrest records submitted to DPS that could not be properly matched with their crimes or the outcomes of their cases. That means an arrest may be listed without a conviction, or even that a person may be listed as having one charge against them when they really had 5 serious charges against them.
For those 65,424 incomplete records, the audit says local agencies submitted erroneous data or incomplete data for felonies and misdemeanor crimes. Those all affect how a person shows up on a criminal background check.
DPS agreed with the findings of the audit and promised to work on holding meetings with local government officials throughout Texas to make sure they know how to submit timely and accurate data on crimes.
About 80% of the information is being submitted to the state electronically, while the rest are mailed or faxed.
The audit listed these hard numbers between September 1, 2009 and November 30, 2010:
- Of the 1,115,469 of the crimes that were required to be reported within 7-days, 84.25% actually were (amounting to 939,802 crimes)
- Of the 959,892 crimes that can be reported within 30-days, 76.48% were reported (or 734,138 crimes).
Even when local police and prosecutors do submit the arrest or conviction information, DPS is sometimes reporting a two-month backlog in entering the data into the database if it comes by mail or fax. Staffing and budget cuts are getting the blame.
No comments:
Post a Comment