Since it’s the middle of March and we’re just hanging around waiting for Spring, we thought we’d give your brain a little spring training. See if you can figure out what these seven words all have in common.

1. Banana
2. Dresser
3. Grammar
4. Potato
5. Revive
6. Uneven
7. Assess

Figure it out yet?
Look at each word carefully.

Providing Private Database-Only Criminal Records

I’m telling you, every time I run across an employment screening firm that is providing private database-only searches without verification, I get a sickly premonition akin to watching old footage of Patsy Cline singing “I Fall to Pieces.”

This practice of database-only criminal record reporting made news again recently in Chicago. A Chicago Tribune report revealed that a new ride sharing company, Uber, “did not check some of the criminal records of its drivers, allowing thousands of drivers to ferry passengers for months, despite not knowing whether or not they had felony convictions.”

The Tribune later determined that “the driver had a 2010 Cook County felony conviction for residential burglary, which should have barred him from partnering with the company”. Uber acknowledged their multistate background checks have missed an "unknown" number of county-level criminal convictions, including the Chicago ride-share driver's felony.

Missing critical information is one thing that can go wrong for an employment screening firm or employer when employing a database-only search. The other thing that can go wrong, the other side of the coin, is not missing offenses, but reporting information that should not be reported.

Employers are increasingly using criminal records in the pre-employment screening process. Job applicants are increasingly learning that this is done, and that a criminal record may put them at a disadvantage for some jobs relative to someone without a criminal record. So job applicants are taking more steps to seal or expunge criminal record offenses than previously. In addition, a significant number of states have programs that prevent an offense from appearing on the criminal record if the offender satisfactorily completes a post-offense program of law abidance.

So it happens way too often in a database-only search that an offense is reported that should not be reported. And a job applicant who has spent money to ensure a criminal offense does not show on his record, or who has diligently completed a state program to ensure their offense is not permanently recorded is, in my experience, one righteously indignant, motivated person.

And while job applicants have been learning, so have attorneys. There are many more attorneys that are educated and dialed in to the FCRA in general and this practice in particular, that are happy to represent indignant, motivated job applicants. 

To be clear, providing a database-only criminal record is not illegal if contemporaneous notice is provided to the applicant at the time of the reporting.

However, that doesn’t make it a good idea even if everyone agrees on the definition of contemporaneous.

I had to grimace while reading the Chicago Tribune article. There in the advertising space, next to an article exposing defects in database-only record checks, was an ad for a database-only search that said:

“CAUTION: This background report is very graphic. We do not censor our reports. We trust you to use this information responsibly. Please do not abuse this tool, or we could be forced to take it offline. The content of the report might shock you, so please prepare yourself for the unexpected.”

If you are an employer, that ad should raise your eyebrows and cause you to put some thought into your criminal record provider and how you use the information.

Derek Hinton is the CEO of TIES, LLC, better known as www.DOTJobHistory.com and CrimApollo, LLC www.CrimApollo.com . DOTJobHistory allows drivers to obtain and verify their employment (DAC), driving and criminal records.
CrimApollo LLC,  provides employers a program to evaluate, use and document their use of criminal records in the hiring process compliant with EEOC guidance.

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Contact Poly Trucking Driver Recruiting - 877-337-7339 / jobs@poly-trucking.com

What do the seven words from above have in common?

Answer:
In all of the words listed, if you take the first letter and place it at the end of the word, then spell the word backwards, it will be the same word. Scroll up and check it out.

Pass it on. Amaze your friends! Confuse your in-laws!

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