Performing Background Checks - What You Need to Know

Designing Your Screening Process

A mentoring organization is responsible for screening prospective mentors and placing them in the most suitable roles. Careful screening improves the quality of your mentors and helps ensure the safety of children involved in your program, while also managing your organization's level of risk and liability. Criminal background checks are critical, but they are only one element of a careful screening process. A robust system of reference checks and interviews of potential volunteers, evaluation of risk, and ongoing monitoring should also be a part of your organization's regular procedures.

Before you begin screening any volunteers, your organization should develop a written policy documenting your volunteer screening process. This policy should include a list of screening elements each prospective volunteer must complete, guidelines for selecting or disqualifying volunteers, and clear instructions on interpreting a criminal history check. You should also keep in mind that information gathered through the screening process should always be kept confidential. Also, always document what you find during the screening process and what decisions you make about the volunteer. This documentation verifies that your program followed your written screening policies on each prospective volunteer.

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Selecting a Criminal Background Check

The criminal background check system in this country today is complicated. Each state is the "gatekeeper" for background checks – they decide who can access background checks and for what purpose. Each state sets its own laws on background checks, which means there is no consistency from state to state on eligibility, process, cost, and turnaround time. In many states, the most thorough types of background checks may not be accessible at all to mentoring organizations. Because of these limits, private vendors have sprung up to provide access to background checks as well.

It can be very confusing for a mentoring program staff person to sort through the types of background checks that are available and decide what is the best. There are several different kinds of criminal background checks available today, each with its' own pros and cons. Below you will find information on things to consider when selecting the background check your organization will use. There is no single criminal database in this country that includes every criminal record, so there is no one "perfect" background check. Because of this, many organizations use a combination of two or three types of checks to get the most complete information.

Fingerprint-based vs. name-based:

A name-based check uses a person's name and Social Security number to match any possible criminal records. There are several weaknesses with a name-based check:

The volunteer could provide you with a false name and Social Security number. In fact, over 1% of the 45 million individuals in the FBI criminal database have used over 100 aliases and false Social Security numbers.
Female volunteers may have two or more different last names if they have been married one or more times. If you only check their current name, you can miss criminal records.
Criminal databases can have mistakes in the spelling of an individual's name and other relevant information. A name-based check might miss a criminal record if the record itself has mistakes.
Due to common names, you can get "false positives" – in other words, your volunteer comes back with criminal records, but they actually belong to another individual with the same or similar name.

A fingerprint-based check is the only way to verify a person's identity, and to ensure that the criminal records found are for the right person. However, mentoring programs may not be able to access a fingerprint-based check, depending on their state's background check laws.

Convictions vs. Arrests:

One of the imperfections with criminal databases is that, often, an arrest will be recorded, but the courts or police do not update that arrest record with the ultimate result. Without that update, we don't know if the individual was convicted, had the charges dropped, or was found not guilty. These incomplete records are often called "open arrests." Some types of background checks only access convictions. When that happens, you are missing any of those open arrests, and run the risk of using a volunteer with an arrest record. Make sure you always know whether or not arrests are included in the criminal background check you are performing.

County/Local Checks:

Background checks of a county or local jurisdiction can be obtained through the local police department. These checks include only the crimes committed within that jurisdiction. Conducting a county search is better than doing no background check at all, but there are many weaknesses.

People are very mobile in today's society. Not only do they move around a lot, but many people work in a different county than where they live. In metropolitan areas with multiple counties in a small area, an individual may pass through three or four counties in the course of a day's activities. People take vacations and business trips or serve military duty in different counties and states than where they live. Plus, if you check the counties where your volunteer has lived over the past 3-5 years, you are relying on the volunteer to be truthful about their past residences. Use county or local searches with great caution because you will miss any criminal offenses committed in other jurisdictions.

State Background Checks:

These background checks are obtained through a state agency (which agency it is varies from state to state). These checks include only the crimes committed within that state, so the same limitations in a county check also apply to a state check. The costs and response times vary widely from state to state. Some states do allow fingerprint-based checks, some only allow name-based checks, and some offer both types for different fees. Most state checks also include arrests, but a few include only convictions. A list of state agencies that perform background checks is available at http://www.nonprofitrisk.org/csb/csb_crim.htm#apndxb.

Private Vendor Checks:

There are dozens of private vendors that advertise their ability to conduct criminal background checks. The costs, response times, and quality of these checks vary widely from company to company. Private background checks are generally name-based and often only access convictions, not arrests. There are two basic methods that these private vendors use for providing background checks.

Some vendors search county record repositories for the volunteer's county of residence for the past 3-5 years. This has the exact same drawbacks as a county search. Other vendors maintain databases of criminal records, often searchable online. Some of these vendors advertise their background checks as national in scope. But, these databases are actually only really "multi-state.” These vendors buy their criminal data from the states. But, many states have strong privacy laws, so they do not sell any criminal data. Other states only sell a portion of their data (for example, parole records – but not the full conviction or arrest files). This means that when you run a search through a company like this, you are accessing complete records from a few states, partial records from many states, and no records from many states.

When using a private vendor check, try to find out as much information as you can about what method they use to conduct the background check and what data is accessed.

FBI Checks:

The FBI maintains the most complete criminal database in the United States. It contains over 200 million arrest and conviction records concerning over 45 million individuals. All records are fingerprint-based. Five to seven thousand new individuals are added to the FBI database every day after they are arrested for the first time. The database is made up of all federal crimes plus approximately 70-90% of each state's criminal databases. Low-level misdemeanors and citations make up the portion of state records that are generally not present in the FBI database. Because of this, programs that use an FBI check may supplement it with a driver's license check to find any DUIs or driving citations that wouldn't be present in the FBI database.

FBI checks are fingerprint-based and include both convictions and arrests. An FBI check is the best background check available, but it is not always accessible or feasible for mentoring organizations. An FBI check must be obtained through your state background check agency (see state checks section for a list of state agencies). But, many states have strict eligibility requirements for FBI checks, and mentoring organizations often don't qualify. When FBI checks are accessible, they may be very costly or have a lengthy turnaround time.

MENTOR is proud to be part of a pilot program, called SafetyNET, that is making FBI checks more accessible to volunteer organizations. Through SafetyNET, any mentoring organization in the country can get an FBI check on a volunteer for $18, with results returned in 3-5 business days. To learn more about SafetyNET or to apply to join the pilot, please visit http://www.mentoring.org/safetynet/ or email safetynet@mentoring.org.

Other Background Check Options:

Many mentoring programs conduct other types of checks to supplement their criminal background checks. Examples include:

Driver's license check: This would catch any tickets, citations, or convictions related to poor driving, including DUIs. A list of state DMVs is available at http://www.drunkdrivingdefense.com/national/
Sex offender registries: The FBI now has a national sex offender registry that is searchable online. It is available at http://www.nsopr.gov/. In addition, the FBI maintains links to each state's sex offender registry at http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/cac/states.htm. Any crimes that would cause an individual to be on a sex offender registry should show up in a state or FBI criminal background check, but this is a good "double check."
Child abuse registries: A few states will allow organizations that work with children to check an individual against the child abuse registry. These databases often include complaints of abuse that never result in arrest or prosecution and so would not be in a criminal database. Try contacting your state's department of child welfare to see if the child abuse registry is accessible.

Take Action - Background Checks