Top Stories
Criminal record searches fall short and all that stuff
February 18, 2014 posted by Steve Brownstein
Bet you don't know how at least a third of your USA domestic and international searches are being done. Bet that that you probably don't know what you’re not getting when you do get a completed criminal record search. Of course, you can guess.
Things have gotten progressively worse in background searches. Especially when what makes a company "feel" they are getting good information is relative to the amount of release or government provided forms a record retriever could offer online. Ultimately you only need one release, save from jurisdictional changes if needed, from the applicant - that in itself supersedes everything else.
Certainly you don't have to believe it's true. Take it from some of the big companies. They know how to get searches done. No Congressional hearings about release forms, no sir!
Going back to the paragraph about knowing your searches. I received a failing score on my very first try at NAPBS' provider certification because I answered that I would search back as far as possible - not stop short of what could be gotten. Did you know that the criminal record search at the main court location in the USA counties was developed with shortcuts and low prices in mind? Never mind the fact that many records are missed, even in this litigious era, all for the sake of an extra dollar.
So here's a good one. A little while ago, someone who helped write the NAPBS provider guidelines started offering searches at Massachusetts city courts (gasp!) - That person would have flunked his own test.
Just letting you know that there is no time for improvement. Not with turnaround times being shortened to 'instant.' Though the shortest turnaround times I've heard of lately, are results before they are done. Seems some Caribbean island ex-police chief scammed some of us into thinking the work was being done; until the Feds indicted him and he plead guilty. I heard he didn't do a single search for a year. He just marked them clear. No pre-employment screening company would dream of doing that, Congressional investigation or not.
I'm too nice a guy. I like this woman in our industry. I like her because she tries hard. She wants to learn. Unfortunately she is in sales and is an employee not an owner. She has quotas and impressions to make on her bosses.
Her company, through her, began offering record searches in the Philippines, touting the fact that they are based in Asia and Australia. I asked her how they do them in Manila. She almost got it right. Except for not answering how they got them done. I did receive back from her a tutorial on what could be done - sure, search at the court, get a NBI clearance. But I came away from that conversation shaking my head in disbelief because I knew she had no idea where the work they were doing was being done. Or where it physically should be done.
I could have asked her about locations; how to get from one location to another. I could have asked her where the office was in a particular building or what it looked like. I could have asked her for a current photo of the location. But I believe she doesn't have an ounce of dishonesty in her heart, so even if they weren’t being done correctly or being done at all; that would never cross her mind.
I didn't have the heart to press her on the issue. She didn't deserve it.
Yep, too nice a guy; but at the same time a fierce competitor. I know there is room for improvement. And though I don’t welcome the competition, it does keep me on my toes, and that my friends keeps them up at night.
by Steven Brownstein
findcrime@aol.com
