Check me out
Many of the stories I see about background checks have a familiar theme. "Background checks are a good idea, but I don't want you to check on me." That's why a story out of Rapid City, South Dakota stands out. The headline reads: "Ice cream vendors embrace background checks." Here's the lead. Details of Rapid City's proposed background-check requirement for ice cream vendors are still being hashed out, but truck operators say they won't have a problem with the new rule if it is implemented. The first question is: "Why do background checks on ice cream vendors?" They may not [...]
Check ‘em all
A story in the Muskogee Phoenix headlined: "Wanted: Students, not felons" describes how some colleges are now including criminal background checks in their application process. Here's an excerpt. Along with their grades and residence status, high school seniors face another important question on their college applications: 'Have you ever been convicted of a felony?' And many colleges, including the University of Oklahoma and nursing programs at Connors State College and Northeastern State University, back that question up with criminal background checks. In other words, what happens is that the college asks an applicant if he or she has a felony [...]
Watching out for the weasel words
"Oh, the irony of the background check!" was the headline on a story in the Pocono Record in February. One of their readers offered the following. A few months ago, I applied for a job at the new distribution center in Gouldsboro. I had the interview, got hired, passed the urine test, then they do a background check which they find a misdemeanor theft charge from two years ago, which was over some coins. I was accused of stealing, but since I was there, I could not prove I did not. Anyway, they told me they could not hire me. [...]
Hello, I love you, let me check your background
To background check, or not, is online love's latest question, at least according to the Salt Lake Tribune. The course of true love has never run smooth, but who ever thought it would come to this? There have been plenty of stories lately about men and women using background check services like SentryLink to check out prospective dates. But now the battle has moved to the online dating services. According to the Tribune story: The contentious issue of the moment - pitting one of the three biggest companies, True.com, against its major rivals - is whether online dating services can [...]
Beware the thumb drive
Several newspapers recently carried the story of an outside firm doing background checks for the Nevada Department of Public safety lost the personal data of over one hundred applicants. It seems that an employee of the firm had the data on a thumb drive and lost the device. "Thumb drive" is the name given to little memory devices that hold a lot of data and plug into a USB port on your computer. They're sometimes called "keychain drives" or "flash drives." Thumb drives are about the size of your index finger and can hold up to 16 gigabytes of data. [...]
One more way applicants can slip through the cracks
An article in the Colorado Springs Gazette outlines how deferred sentences can let someone convicted of a crime pass your background check. Here's what happened in Colorado. Robert Lawrence Psaty worked as a mental health clinician at the Colorado Mental Health Institute. A waiter noticed him slip a pill into his companion's drink while having dinner. The waiter, smart fellow, took the drink from the table and called police. Psaty was arrested. It turns out that he's been in trouble before, in 1994 and again in 2002. In both cases he received a "deferred sentence." Here's what that means according [...]