In a continuing effort to improve data accuracy and further reduce false positive matches in our instant criminal database, backgroundchecks.com will require the subject's full middle name or middle initial to conduct an instant criminal database search.

Improve data accuracy & further reduce false positive matches

Including the subject's full middle name or middle initial along with the other required elements: First Name, Last Name and Date of Birth; helps to narrow the possible records in the database for review, but does not automatically mean that the record found is the exact person for whom you are searching.

Before relying on any result, you should confirm that the record really matches your subject, including by checking all information in the record and using common sense.

Additional Search Filters

In addition to our latest database search improvements, we will continue to offer the following filtering options to help you further customize your search results:

• Include Dates of Birth within 1, 2, 3 years of entered Date of Birth - This option helps when you are not sure of an exact date of birth. If you are unsure of a subject's exact date of birth, you can use this feature to increase the year range, thus increasing your results.
• Include results that do not have a Date of Birth available - This option can help broaden your search. We receive our instant criminal data from hundreds of sources. Many of those sources do not always include date of birth. By default we exclude these records in your search. While we don't recommend assuming that these are a match for your subject, they can serve as good indicators of counties or states where you might want to perform additional searches.
• Include similar names - This option will return more results because it is less strict. By default, we return only results that contain the exact name. For instance, "Jon" would not return results with the name "Jonathan", or "Jonas". However, you can choose to receive results that are similar name matches, and you would see results that matched "Jonathan" or "Jonas".

The Rhode Island House of Representatives has backed legislation that would require background checks to be conducted on any person who is involved in any program that involves mentoring students. The bill has now moved on to the Rhode Island Senate. Though state law currently requires national and state criminal background checks for those who are employed with schools, the new legislation will now involve volunteers as well, making sure that the state is covering all the bases.

Rhode Island is not doing anything new with this legislation, but they are making a point that it is just not acceptable for schools nationwide to allow those who may have criminal backgrounds to be around children. The state is making a safe and responsible choice that may prevent crimes against children.

Companies, including government agencies and schools are using third party background check companies like backgroundchecks.com to perform national and state criminal background checks on their employees and volunteers. There are several products that backgroundchecks.com can offer to companies like their US Offender OneSEARCH that will instantly check national sexual offender databases and report matches back. These types of background checks will help keep children and other employees safe from harm and discourage registered offenders from applying for positions that cater to children.

About backgroundchecks.com

backgroundchecks.com - a founding member of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) - serves thousands of customers nationwide, from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies by providing comprehensive screening services.  Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with an Eastern Operations Center in Chapin, S.C., backgroundchecks.com is home to one of the largest online criminal conviction databases in the industry. For more information about backgroundchecks’ offerings, please visit www.backgroundchecks.com.

Source: http://www.golocalprov.com/news/new-house-backs-background-checks-for-student-mentors/

A fast food restaurant known as the Flying Biscuit Café is under fire right now for hiring a convicted felon. The restaurant hired convicted felon Mark Anthony Cox. Cox was a relatively new hire when he attacked and murdered a pregnant restaurant manager. He then robbed the restaurant and fled. Cox had served time for robbery and breaking and entering. He was released from prison in November, 2011 and began working at the fast food restaurant 2 weeks after his release. The restaurant did not perform a background check on Cox before he was hired, so they were unaware of his arrest and conviction.

Since the Flying Biscuit Café did not check the background of their employee, they are getting much of the blame for this murder. Though it is not illegal for companies to hire felons, it is illegal for a convicted felon to work in a location that serves alcohol. Since the Flying Biscuit Café serves alcohol, the Alcohol Law Enforcement department is considering action.

The Flying Biscuit Café could have possibly prevented this entire ordeal had they used a background check company like backgroundchecks.com. The company backgroundchecks.com could have used one of their products, like Single State OneSEARCH to get information on Cox before they chose to hire him. Had they found out about the conviction, legally they would not have been able to bring him on board due to the fact that they sell alcohol.

About backgroundchecks.com -

backgroundchecks.com - a founding member of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) - serves thousands of customers nationwide, from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies by providing comprehensive screening services. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with an Eastern Operations Center in Chapin, S.C., backgroundchecks.com is home to one of the largest online criminal conviction databases in the industry. For more information about backgroundchecks’ offerings, please visit www.backgroundchecks.com.

Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/01/26/2959407/cafe-could-be-cited-by-ale-for.html

County and state criminal history searches: which is important and which is indispensable?

Let’s start with county criminal history searches. Knowing what we now do about criminal history databases, many of you are probably unsure why a county criminal history is necessary. There is a reason why we recommend that US OneSEARCH be run with a county criminal history search rather than as a standalone search. As stated previously, county criminal history searches are perfect for digging deep and getting every available detail in targeted areas. Most importantly, county criminal history searches are most likely to yield felony or misdemeanor charge results.

In addition, to ensure FCRA compliance, you should always run a jurisdictional search on any item discovered in a national criminal database. (To do this automatically, select US OneVERIFY instead of US OneSEARCH when ordering searches on backgroundchecks.com.)

Next, we have state criminal history searches. Ideally, a state criminal history search will search each county within a given state to ensure that no records are found, however not every statewide Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) offers a comprehensive county reporting. The benefits are similar to county criminal history searches while sometimes offering the benefit of breadth in addition to depth, but these searches can also be affected by politics in two ways: First, when demand for searches is high, the state agencies get theirs done first and private employers have to wait – sometimes for a week or more. Second, it takes effort for information to move from the county court’s records (which are usually updated daily) to the state’s repository. The county has to extract the data and send it to the state, which has to load it and test it. When demand is high or politicians cut budgets, the state records can lag behind the county records. And, while we don’t know the reason, we sometimes find records at the county level that simply don’t exist at the state level.

Based on this, which would you say is indispensible and which would you say is just important? From our perspective, county criminal history searches are indispensible. They give the necessary depth of information in the place where convictions are most likely to appear. State criminal history searches, on the other hand, tend to be more costly and can be affected by politics, but they can offer a greater breadth to cover those people who don’t stay in the counties of a state in which they live or work. For these reasons, we categorize state criminal history searches as “merely” important.

The final type of criminal history search is a federal criminal history search. Many think this is either just another way of saying national criminal database or a search of all counties in the U.S. It is in fact something completely different. We’ll examine this last type of criminal history search next time in our question and answer blog posts.