EMPLOYMENT BACKGROUND CHECKS

Federal Criminal Records Employment Screening Background Checks

Along with the phenomenal growth of the internet, we have also noted a dramatic increase in the crimes charged in the Federal criminal justice system.

US Department of Justice data suggests that approximately 10% of the 2 million people incarcerated in the US are in the Federal Bureau of Prison’s custody and of the 6.8 million people under some form of probation or parole 10 percent are being  supervised by the Federal government as opposed to a state corrections department.

Federal Criminal Records Information 

The bureaus of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement
Federal criminal records are maintained entirely separately by the Federal court system in each state.

Now, many crimes such as Identity Theft, Credit Card Fraud, Bank Fraud, Drug Trafficking, Kidnapping, Bank Robbery, Weapons Charges, Child Pornography, Tax Evasion,Counterfeiting, Internet Related Sex Crimes, Tax Refund Fraud and many others are prosecuted in the Federal criminal justice system and not in state or county criminal courts.

In these cases, an applicant who has not incurred a criminal record in a state or county court, may have a serious criminal record in the Federal court system.

Those Federal criminal records would go undetected in the course of a traditional state and county criminal record background search.

As a result, many of our clients now routinely choose to include a check of Federal criminal records on their prospective employees.

In that connection, we have developed a new product that addresses the need to include a search of criminal activity which will only appear in the Federal records systems.

The Criminal Record Smart Search Plus® addresses these concerns by providing an unlimited search of all Federal criminal records in the jurisdictions in which the applicant may have resided in within the last seven years.

The Criminal Record Smart Search Plus® is just as fast and easy as our Criminal Records Smart Search® and will be included in your menu.

Simply select the Criminal Record Smart Search Plus® from your order menu, and the appropriate Federal jurisdictions will automatically be searched for you along with the state and county records already searched with the Smart Search.

Please see attachments of an actual applicant (personal information has been changed) that had no criminal record at the state level, but did have a serious Federal criminal record as well as Federal case currently pending in one of the U.S. Federal District courts.

Fortunately, our proprietary software allows us to access the Federal criminal records systems no matter how many different states an applicant may have lived in.

The information required for employment screening on federal criminal records is obtained via electronic access to Federal Judicial District courthouse within the district and state that is requested.

There are 241 US District Courts, with each state housing one to four federal district courts. Individuals in these Courts have been prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for a violation of the U.S. Code.

These Courts do not include cases filed in county or state courts. Mail fraud, arson, interstate drug trafficking and the like are the types of cases stored in the Federal courthouses.

Since this check searches the U.S. Federal District Court Master Name Index, if the individual whom you are requesting information on has a common name, this search may return numerous possible matches.

This repository is updated daily and is extremely comprehensive, with only 6 District Courts not reporting into the national system: Alaska, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, South District Indiana, and West District Arkansas.

Please note that federal courts often do not record personal identifying information. This search will cover filings within the last seven years. A ten year search is also available.

Searching a common name might result in a multitude of results. The information found may or may not constitute a complete record check for your subject.

For an example of an applicant with a Federal criminal record but no state or county arrest record, Click Here. This record would not have been found without a check of the separately maintained Federal criminal records systems which contains about 10 per cent of all arrest records.

Please note that Federal employment screening law mandates background checks for employees who are engaged in particular industries.

The Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services maintains a list of individuals who are excluded from participation in any of its federally-funded healthcare programs. Exclusions are due to convictions for program-related fraud and patient abuse, licensing board actions and default on health education assistance loans.

Therefore, employers in affected industries should check the OIG Exclusion list before hiring employees who might work in such programs.

The FACIS® program is also very important when screening medical personnel.
Click Here for more information on FACIS®.