Truth in Advertising
At SELECTiON.COM® we believe in open communication and above all, protecting our clients through background checks.
As such, it follows that we make sure our services are accurately presented to the public. We want our clients to be able to choose the reports that will work best to protect their company from bad hires, and that starts with understanding exactly what’s included in each report.
Too often in this industry you’ll see background check companies trying to sell national criminal background checks as a catch-all, one-and-done report.
While that may be appropriate in some cases, a national background check should never be sold as all-encompassing.
We believe in a many pronged approach to background checks. Of course, this all depends on industry and need, but the basic elements are a Social Security Number Trace report to identify where your applicant has lived, county searches in those areas and a national criminal database search to catch those surrounding areas that a crime may have been committed.
SELECTiON.COM® conducts dozens of pre-employment background screenings and verifications, including some of these most common services that we offer:
SSN Trace
A Social Security Number Trace uses the applicant’s Social Security Number to obtain address history information, which is provided by an aggregate of databased information supplied by credit reporting agencies. The information provided by the SSN Trace feeds those name variations and aliases into any number and combination of other reports.
Search America™
Search America™ is the largest national criminal database in the industry and is the perfect complement to virtually any criminal background check via Fastrax Select®. A SSN Trace can be combined and fed into Search America™ populating records provided by hundreds of databases from every state and permanently-inhabited territories (District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and America Samoa) in the United States.
Information comes from Administrative Office of the Courts, Departments of Correction, Sex Offender Registries, as well as county court record information from cooperating jurisdictions. More than 140 unique sex offender registries, including all 50 states and permanently-inhabited territories.
Search America™ also pulls from a large list of national security and international sources, including INTERPOL’s Most Wanted List and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) terrorist watchlist.
County Criminal Record Search
The County Criminal Record Search is used to obtain criminal record information from any of the more than 3,100+ counties in the United States. Record information may be obtained electronically either via a court-provided source, or at the courthouse via public access terminals.
There are jurisdictions where record information is not electronically available, and in those counties, record researchers or court clerks directly are utilized to obtain criminal record information directly from the courthouse.
The scope of the information provided is determined by client preference, and limited by state and federal guidelines.
The County Criminal Record Search is utilized to verify potential criminal records found by Search America™, or to backfill counties/jurisdictions that do not make record information digitally available. The address history is used to determine which jurisdictions need to be searched.
Federal Criminal Record Search
Federal cases are searched independently of state or county criminal records, as the courts in question are separate of each other. Federal case information is searched electronically from the 94 United States District Courts, and jurisdictions are ordered are potentially based on the SSN Trace information. Each district court is ordered separately, and information reported adheres to the guidelines of the FCRA and the preference of the client.
For detail related to some of the other background checks or verifications provided by SELECTiON.COM® including, but not limited to prior employment verifications, education verifications, personal references, motor vehicle records and credit checks, visit our Truth in Advertising page at www.Selection.com.
SELECTiON.COM® has more than 25 years of experience and we can provide you the tools to feel confident that you are doing everything possible to keep your workplace safe.
Contact us today to see how SELECTiON.COM® can improve your background check process.
NOTE: The contents of this article are not legal advice for your particular situation. You should neither act nor rely upon anything stated in this article without first consulting your own legal counsel.
Let’s face it, most criminals aren’t going to just hand over their records. That would make your job a lot easier if they did! Instead they hide their history by working the flaws inherent to the criminal record reporting system.
Susan Porter has been a valued member of SELECTiON.COM® since 2016. Here’s a little more about her.
Aretha Hischak has been a valued member of SELECTiON.COM® since 2014. Here’s a little more about her.