Candidates caught in the National Criminal Search conundrum

The background industry promotes what is called a National Criminal Search, a proprietary database of information scraped from the Internet that is neither national nor complete. So many employers utilize this inferior product, and actual criminal records are missed leading the candidate to the false impression that they do not have a criminal record. This database will not include a very large number of criminal records as discussed in our other articles on this topic.

When applying for their next employment opportunity, candidates are indicating in “The Box”, that they do not have a criminal record. When the next employer utilizes a vendor that conducts primary source criminal record checks through a state agency such as the State Police, records that were not found in any National Criminal Search are developed and employment is denied due to the candidate’s misrepresentation that they do not have a criminal record.

TABB INC. has received hundreds of telephone calls from candidates who were denied employment when a criminal record was found when our office conducted a primary source criminal record research that was never developed in a prior background investigation that included an inadequate National Criminal Search. Candidates are unwittingly caught in a trap thinking that they do not have a record since none were previously found.

Candidates who have been involved in the criminal justice system should consider an expungement in order to prevent potential employers from finding out about their criminal record.