An Article in WFAA in Texas, discusses the troubling condition of the San Antonio airport, where 767 foreign mechanics have been hired in the past two years.    These workers undergo a background check U.S. State department in their home country, but there is concern about the ability to conduct a proper international criminal record check.  

“Criminal record keeping in much of the world is “nonexistent.” Moreover, some of the home countries of the mechanics do not have diplomatic relations with the U.S.”

We talk a lot about the problems of conducting criminal records searches in the United States.   There are nationwide criminal database searches that are good in about 40 states, as well excellent county courthouse records going back at least 7 years as per FCRA guidelines.  Federal Criminal records are also available on databases and researched at the courthouse by professionals.  

International Criminal Records
In foreign countries, the criminal record searches vary depending on the record keeping quality of the country.   In practice, if you are hiring foreign workers it is best to conduct a international criminal background check with a company who is knowledgeable about the criminal record keeping practices of each country.   One company, Corra Group, has an extensive research network spanning the globe with local researchers on the ground. These researchers know their local courthouse traits and can provide the best in practice international criminal records.

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For universities we recommend conducting complete criminal record history searches for all coaches and sporting officials.  While an instant criminal database search will speed up the proceed, we also recommend conducting a social security trace to determine address history and then cunning county criminal records searches on all the counties where your candidates have resided.  

Check out the full article here and keep your team in the sports page, not the rumor column.       

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Timothy Keil, a camp volunteer, was caught sexually molesting a child inside a cabin at a Perry County youth camp. His crime revealed a loophole that legislators are working to close. The state requires background checks at summer day camps but no checks for residential or overnight camps.

Senate Bill 321 calls for criminal background checks for all camp staffers, FBI hecks if the person has not lived in Ohio for the past five years and requires Social Security number background checks on camp volunteers.

Background checks are becoming more integrated into all aspects our society, usually as reactions to tragic events.  Only too late do we see the potential for developing a screening program for various situations where our children are exposed to criminals.   As with the tragic events of 9-11, we are having a failure of imagination.   A truly effective loss prevention program must include a proper threat assessment that imagines these possible scenarios and institutes the appropriate prevention programs.  Even a simple backgound checking program for your organization can help remove the most egregious of problem candidates, the registered sex offenders.  As you develop the screening standards for you program, you can delve deeper, into criminal history, civil court searches, and even credit report history if your candidate has a fidiciuary responisibility.  

Gibbs worked as a campus security guard and Barnes County jailer. A less thorough background check came up clean on Gibbs because it did not catch criminal history connected to his previous name.

As with any level of background check, it’s important to establish identity before conducting a criminal records search. We recommend running the candidate’s social security number in a social security trace which will provide you with additional known aliases (akas). Once the candidate’s identity has been verified by the social security trace, then a criminal history search can be conducted using all of the candidate’s known aliases and places of residence. Sometimes a criminal does not conduct a crime in the county of residence; that is why is it worthwhile to suppliment any hand pulled county criminal search with a Nationwide Criminal Database Search. While not every state is included in the database, it can provide you with large amount of information instantly. The Nationwide Criminal Search works best when combined with a county criminal trace.