Background checks for college students
Recently the Wall Street Journal ran a story about the increasing use of background checks for university applicants. It seems that resume inflation begins early these days. Applications to college are at record highs, and some candidates will do anything to stand out. According to the Josephson Institute of Ethics, 28% of high-schoolers stole from a store last year, and 60% cheated. (Even more disturbing, 92% of the respondents were satisfied with their personal ethics.) Padding your list of extracurriculars seems like small potatoes after that. As a result, the academic system has begun to fight back. They are beginning [...]
Retailers and the FBI join forces to fight crime
The FBI announced today that it has been working with two major retail networks to launch a database that will fight retail fraud. The database is called LERPnet and will provide a centralized repository for information on retail crime, including theft, fraud, and "online auction issues". The service is expected to launch Monday. It features free access for law enforcement personnel and is only $1,200 per year for retailers. Although it is not officially live yet, LERPnet already has over 40 retailers signed up -- some of them very well-known -- and over 14,000 criminal incidents entered. Given the negligible [...]
Keeping sex offenders safe in Scotland
A while back, we reported on the efforts of the Ohio legislature to label cars owned by sex offenders by issuing special license plates. Some argued that this was too intrusive. However, taking a look at the world situation, it appears the United States is out in front on this issue, at least with respect to Scotland. The United States offers a free national sex offender registy, supplemented by many state ones, which can pinpoint offenders on a map and paint a color-coded picture of unease across America. In this country s.o. crimes are unique in terms of the registrations [...]
FBI warning: Extremists want to drive our school buses
The FBI stirred up a firestorm this month by issuing a bulletin to police warning that suspected members of extremist groups had signed up as school bus drivers. Naturally, this got immediate media attention. The FBI then held a press conference during which they appeared to be playing down the risk. A spokesman said, "Parents and children have nothing to fear" and "There are no threats, no plots and no history leading us to believe there is any reason for concern." They added that most drivers were seeking jobs for legitimate reasons. However, the complete text of the bulletin was [...]
Medical background checks and the OIG exclusions list
Certain professions require more specialized screening than the traditional background check. Medical providers fall into this category. In this post we explore the medical exclusions database provided by the U.S. Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and how it is used for medical employment screening. The OIG exclusions list is a powerful tool established by Congress to "prevent certain individuals and businesses from participating in Federally-funded health care programs". Specifically, the Federal government will not pay for any items furnished, ordered, or prescribed by an excluded person or business. Violations of this policy can be quite costly, at $10,000 per [...]
The dilemma of volunteer background checks
The Red Cross recently made a public relations error. In the wake of fraudulent activity connected with Hurricane Katrina, they decided to implement a background check for all of their volunteers. Their background check release form, however, went beyond the standard waiver to examine criminal records. It included permission to pull credit reports as well. Not surprisingly, many people felt that this was very intrusive and the Red Cross ultimately removed references to credit reports from its release form. How did the Red Cross make such a mistake? Apparently they had been considering using background checks since 2004. Like many [...]