Television crime dramas and the marketing efforts of some consumer reporting agencies have given many employers the idea that a reliable comprehensive criminal records database exists. It does not.

 

Often marketed as "national" or "nationwide", criminal records databases are compiled by private companies who purchase information from a patchwork of sources: county courts, state criminal records repositories, sex offender registries, and prison systems.

 

Criminal records database searches are valuable because they cover a much larger geographical area than searching only the jurisdictions associated with an employment applicant’s residential history. People may get into legal trouble in jurisdictions where they don’t live.  Because there are more than 3,200 counties in the United States, not all courts can be effectively checked on-site.

 

While criminal records databases are useful in identifying potential criminal records they should not be relied upon as accurate or complete for several reasons:

 

• Most jurisdictions do not make their records available in bulk electronic format, which means that many important criminal records are missing from criminal records databases.
   

• Many jurisdictions remove key pieces of defendant’s identifying information (such as date of birth). This often leads to criminal records being associated by the database with the wrong person. For example, an employment applicant with a common name might be confused with a registered sex offender with the same name.
   

• Because criminal records often change over time, databases sometime report outdated information to employers. For instance, expunged or sealed cases are sometimes found in database records. Likewise, probated cases that later turn into convictions when the defendant fails to successfully complete probation are often misreported.

 

A CRA that chooses to display the “Responsibile Criminal Databases” seal is self-certifying that they subscribe to the following standards when using criminal records in databases in the context of employment-related screening, exclusive of the screening of volunteers, tenants, and other non-employment relationships:

 

1.   Criminal records databases compiled by non-government entities will only be used as indicators of possible records. Prior to making any report about a potential or current employee to an employer about a criminal record from a database, the CRA will verify the information directly with the reporting jurisdiction. This ensures that employers make decisions based on accurate and up-to-date information.

 

2.   When using these databases it is important that current or prospective employer clients are provided information about the limited nature of criminal records databases and the importance of researching each applicant's criminal history in the jurisdictions in which the applicant currently or previously has lived or worked.

 

This is a self-certification standard. There is no process of enforcement or accreditation. Employers relying upon the seal should still take appropriate measures to ensure that they are dealing with a professional consumer reporting agency and that they have established a legal and effective employment screening process.