Background Check

No Background Check? No Problem – Cracking Down On The Gun Show Loophole

November 2, 2009 By Chris Miller

guns

The man in the baseball-type cap was clear about his task. He was selling weapons at a gun show in Sharonville, Ohio. And he wasn’t troubled about the minutiae of the law.

“I don’t need your address,” he said, shaking his head and waving a dismissive hand across his face. “Nothing.”

“No background check?” asks a skeptical potential buyer.

“Just show me that you’re from Ohio,” the seller said.

The buyer sounded relieved. “That’s good about the background check,” he said, “because I probably couldn’t pass one.”

“I don’t care,” the seller said. Then, with a chuckle and a toothy smile, he added, “because I wouldn’t pass either, bud.”

Undercover investigators for the New York City mayor’s office secretly filmed this transaction earlier this year as part of a seven-city and three-state study on how easy it is for people who can’t pass a background check to get a gun. Just attend one of the thousands of local guns shows held every weekend across America. Odds are that if the money is green, the dealer will sell a gun. In most cases, no questions are asked.

Read the rest of the story here.

Best Employee Screening Articles For August & September 2009

October 1, 2009 By Chris Miller

In case you missed any of our employee screening articles for August and September, here’s a quick recap of our most popular:

Smart, Compliant Hiring Decisions Made Easy

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Photo credit: net_efekt

Truth and Lies On Resumes

September 3, 2009 By Chris Miller

Katie Couric reports on Andrea Stanfield, a woman who not only lied on her resume and was making over $100,000, she wrote a book about it, called “Phony! How I Faked My Way Through Life.”

“When we started working on a story about resume fraud and whether more people were lying on their resumes now because the job market is so tight, our biggest challenge was finding someone who would admit he or she lied on their resume. No easy task.

Andrea Stanfield said it’s not like she sat down and formulated a plan to lie. Locked in a battle for custody of her young daughter, she was desperate for a well-paying job but every position said “bachelor’s degree required, bachelor’s degree required,” she repeated during an interview outside her St. Petersburg, Florida home. So the Ohio native added “B.A. Business Administration/Akron University” to her resume when she only had a high school diploma. The college is actually called the University of Akron.

Ultimately, when her boss was accused of embezzling millions from the company and an investigation was likely, she quit because she feared she might get caught and could no longer handle living the lie. Her husband at the time was shocked by the revelation, she says, and their marriage, this her second, quickly came to an end. ”

A simple background check could have prevented all this.

Andrea has plenty of advice for anyone who might consider lying to get a job in the tight labor market: “Don’t do it.”

Read the entire story “Faking Your Resume” here.

Dangers Of Using Social Networks On The Job Hunt In Australia

July 22, 2009 By Chris Miller

NEWS.com.au (Australia) reports about the Dangers of using social networks on the job hunt.

Employers using social networks to gather information on job candidates could be breaking the law.

Social networks have become hot recruitment tools but Harmers Workplace Lawyers warn that using such sources to gather personal information to screen would-be employees carries a number of legal risks.

Harmers senior associate Bronwyn Maynard says many employers and recruiters are not aware of their obligations under the existing Privacy Act let alone the “General Protections” section of the Fair Work Act that came into force on July 1, 2009.

Under the Privacy Act employers and recruiters must:

Inform a candidate that they have collected personal information about them.

Explain the purpose of gathering the information.

Tell the candidate who else will see the information.

Luckily for recruiters and hiring managers, most candidates don’t realise that under privacy legislation they are entitled to see notes made about them during the recruitment screening process.

“The Privacy Act also dictates that companies must only collect personal information that is necessary for their business,” explains Ms Maynard.

Candidates can apply directly to employers and recruitment consultants to see the notes made and information gathered about them during a recruitment campaign. A candidate can request that inaccurate information be corrected. If the candidate considers the information irrelevant he or she can then make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner.

Ms Maynard said while there is no set timeframe, to expect a reply within 30 days would be a reasonable.

Read more about the Dangers of using social networks on the job hunt.

The Importance Of Accurate Background Checks

July 14, 2009 By Chris Miller

Last week I reported how a Post-Hire Background Check could have prevented a terrible crime.

On the front page of this morning’s Dispatch I read…

Rape suspect got 2nd job because of faulty vetting

Weapons charges should have disqualified caregiver

It looks like this suspect was able to get a second job with Goodwill Columbus because of two errors with his background check:

Goodwill ran a background check through the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI) which incorrectly showed a weapons charges against him had been dismissed. Actually, the suspect pleaded guilty in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to reduced misdemeanor charges of carrying a concealed weapon and improper handling of a firearm in 2008 — convictions considered to be disqualifying offenses for working among people with developmental disabilities.That information was not on the BCI report, said Margie Pizzuti, president of Goodwill Columbus.
Goodwill ran an additional background check through an online records-search service (I don’t know which company), but that report was confusing and Goodwill staff members apparently did not see that Quintero had been convicted, Pizzuti said.”This instructs us to be even more vigilant in finding out what’s in these reports and making sure we understand them,” she said. “If we had seen that and understood clearly, it probably would have been at least a red flag.”

Read the article here.

CONCLUSION

A manual on-site search at the county courthouse by an experienced researcher is often the most accurate, and up-to-date criminal search available. Goodwill ran a BCI check which is the authorized central repository for all felony records for the state of Ohio. The bureau relies on police departments, sheriff’s offices, and courts of record to submit arrest and court conviction data to the bureau for record updates. The bureau did not have the most current information in this case.

Your background screening provider needs to provide you with an easy to read report so there is absolutely no question about the status of the person being screened.

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