Documenting Business Policies and Procedures

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State Criminal Records Restrictions/Shortcomings N
ovember 19, 2008 200 ET Larry D. Henry Derek
Hinton
NAPBS Education Series Background Screening 101
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State Criminal Record Access

• State Repository
• Records access varies
• Alaska
• Full criminal record all records
• Consumer
• Government
• Interested party all records
• Supervisory power over
• Children
• Dependent adults
• Interested person
• Desire access to FBI records

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State Criminal Record Access

• Records access varies
• California
• Not open to the public
• Colorado, Florida
• All records released
• Georgia
• First offender records not released
• Hawaii
• Convictions only
• Exception to 18 classes of government private
  employers

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State Criminal Record Access

• Records access varies
• Idaho
• Arrests older than 12 months only with signed
  consent
• Illinois
• Records with dispositions released. Only 52
  have dispositions
• Nevada
• Not available if subject is over 100

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State Criminal Record Access

• Records access varies
• Pennsylvania
• Criminal justice agencies
• All records
• Other requestors
• No arrests older than 2 years
• Virginia
• Criminal justice agencies
• All records
• Other requestors
• Convictions only, 84 have dispositions

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State Criminal Record Access

• If customer has special access, they generally
  obtain such records without the use of a consumer
  reporting agency (CRA)
• However, many statewide databases are very
  incomplete suggesting that further checking is
  appropriate by the CRA

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State Criminal Record Access

• How Long Does It Take?
• Arrest Records
• There is an obvious delay from an event occurring
  in a county court and that information being
  posted at the state level.

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State Criminal Record Access

• The Good
• 1 day Arizona, California, Maryland, New York,
  Pennsylvania
• 15 days Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa,
  Nevada, Ohio, South Carolina

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State Criminal Record Access

• The Bad
• 30-50 days Arkansas, Kentucky, Nebraska

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State Criminal Record Access

• The Ugly
• 213 days Connecticut
• 96 days Oklahoma

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State Criminal Record Access

• How About Dispositions?
• 1,000 days Mississippi
• 180 days Michigan
• 197 days Georgia
• 62 days Maryland
• 70 days Arizona

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State Criminal Record Access

• Some States Are Much Better
• 2-4 days Colorado
• 2 days Delaware
• 1 day Indiana
• 1 day Maine
• 1 day North Carolina

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State Criminal Record Access

• Disposition Records
• It is critical to have the disposition with the
  arrest. Some states do an excellent job while
  others have a low percentage of dispositions.
  The lack of a disposition would indicate a county
  search should be conducted.
• 100 Massachusetts
• 100 Connecticut
• 96 Vermont

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State Criminal Record Access

• Some States Dont Measure Up
• The following states have the lowest disposition
  tied to arrests
• 17 Colorado
• 23 Tennessee
• 32 New Mexico, Oklahoma

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State Criminal Record Access

• Is Average Good Enough?
• Most states fit in a middle ground of tying
  dispositions to arrests, but how helpful is the
  database when only 40-65 of records have a
  disposition?
• 58 Arizona
• 46 District of Columbia
• 52 Illinois
• 45 Indiana
• 50 Kansas
• 41 Minnesota

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State Criminal Record Access

• Administrative Office of the Court (AOC)
• 28 states have records available beyond the
  central state repository.
• This is especially useful when records are
  otherwise unavailable from the repository, such
  as California, Louisiana, New York, North
  Carolina Utah

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State Criminal Record Access

• Administrative Office of the Court (AOC)
• Not all counties are included in all AOC
  databases.
• Not all county records submitted are the same.
• - Some have limited information

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State Criminal Record Access

• Administrative Office of the Court (AOC)
• Some states have no statewide records
• California, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Oklahoma,
  Texas, Virginia
• Some have statewide
• Colorado (Nexis Lexis), Iowa, Kentucky, Utah
  (without misdemeanors), Washington, Wisconsin
  except Portage County

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State Criminal Record Access

• Administrative Office of the Court (AOC)
• Some have limited identifiers
• Alabama

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State Criminal Record Access

• So Does A State Database Have Value?
• Yes, even in states where there is a delay in
  entering data or there is a low percentage of
  disposition records.
• Too costly to search multiple counties
• Reasonable choice with someone who has lived in
  many counties

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State Criminal Record Access

• Do Not Oversell The Search
• The customer should not believe that the state
  search has all records from every county. Know
  your databases

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State Criminal Record Access

• Use of Criminal Records Is Restricted
• In addition to federal discrimination laws, all
  states have their version of the EEOC
• Some states have specific laws codifying the
  EEOC policy of job related and business necessity
  when using criminal records, e.g. Arizona,
  Minnesota, Kansas, New York, Washington, etc.

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State Criminal Record Access

• Disparate Impact
• Use of criminal records does have a disparate
  impact on certain minorities. Thus the use of
  criminal records must be justified.
• Remember, blanket no hire rules are unlawful.

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State Criminal Record Access

• How Old Is the Conviction?
• This is first consideration. Has there been
  time for the person to reform?
• - Rehabilitation is the issue here.

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State Criminal Record Access

• How Serious?
• The more serious the crime, the longer the
  impact and justification for considering the
  conviction.

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State Criminal Record Access

• Job Related
• The offense, felony or misdemeanor, must have
  some connection to the job.
• Misdemeanor DUI pizza delivery service, OK
• Petty theft cashier, OK
• Bad check construction worker, No

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State Criminal Record Access

• Questions?