It is an excellent idea to check out the background of any person you plan to hire, or that will have contact with your finances, children or family for criminal records, arrests, convictions, or other offenses. Can you afford to discover that the likable new employee you hired is actually using an alias and is wanted on felony charges by the authorities?
What if the financial planner you have entrusted your children’s college fund to has a embezzlement conviction on his criminal record? Or worse yet, what if your child’s nanny, daycare worker, gym teacher, scout leader, or church worker is a convicted sex offender?
Compared to just a few years ago, most state, county & local businesses have made criminal background checks and drug testing a mandatory part of their hiring process. Your should do the same!
But the fact is that many convicted criminals move to other states after a prison term is completed or parole conditions have been satisfied. And not all of them will be happy carrying forward the negative baggage associated with their criminal past. Some convicts (particularly convicted sex offenders) will simply adopt a new persona using identity theft techniques to help them regain close contact with children, money, drugs, and unsuspecting persons.
So what can you do to protect yourself and your family? Insist on complete and detailed personal information on anyone you plan to hire for your business or for any work to be performed at your home, or for anyone who will be in close proximity to your children.
Demand a full name, address history for the last ten (10) years, social security number and date of birth. Call your local sheriff’s office to see if they have had any law enforcement related contact with the individual.
Some offices will even run a NCIC (National Crime Information Computer) criminal records check off-the-record for you! This law-enforcement only report is also known as a rap-sheet, and will list a person’s complete history of run-in’s with the law nationwide. In our opinion, this report should be available free of charge to any U.S. citizen who requests one.
Get to know your local sheriff, they can help!
For information regarding criminal records in background checks, please click here: Criminal Records
