Case Study: Statewide Criminal Records

When the background report for his newest applicant, Gina, was returned, Harold was happy to see that she had no charges against her. A couple of weeks after Gina started her job, a police officer came to Harold's office and informed him that Gina was using the company phone to place threatening calls to her ex-boyfriend. The officer also told Harold that Gina had been charged for harassment on several occasions in a nearby county and had a restraining order against her. Harold quickly realized that he had only been searching for criminal records in an applicant's county of residence and that he needed more coverage in his background investigations to avoid situations like this in the future. Harold added statewide criminal records to his employment screening package, because he learned that a statewide search would give him more security in his employment screening program.