County Criminal Background Checks are the most accurate of criminal searches. These records are pulled directly from the courthouse or the interface terminal and provide you with all the current criminal history of any employment candidate. County Criminal Background Searches are more expensive than database searches, but for your management and executive level job candidates, especially, they are the smart way to go.
The difficulty is that most counties throughout the United States were not geared for the massive amount of country criminal background searches that are being conducted on a daily basis. Some have worked to accommodate the request load better than others. Some know better how to work with court researches. Some, I’m afraid to say, find looking for records an annoyance.
Coupled with the realities of budgetary and economic downturns and the shortage of qualified personnel, with some counties you are the mercy of a county clerk who can retrieve these records when times allows. Sometimes time won’t allow for a number of days, or even weeks
It is always easier to report clears, or when no records found as opposed to the times when records are suspected. Then the searching begins. It is important then to match name, date of birth, address history and whatever other information against the records to make sure you have the right person and not someone with a similar name. The more indicators you have on your employment candidate, then the better off you are.
Despite the delays, County Criminal Background Checks should be a significant part of any pre-employment screening program.
Check them out before you hire.
