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Access to Criminal Records |
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Are you sick of the hassle, expense, and delays involved in retrieving or
accessing criminal records? Are you an employer who wants to do a
background check on a prospective hire?
Over the past five years,
technology has changed the way things work. For instance, access to public
records was done entirely manually. It involved physically sending a
person out to sift through piles of paperwork in order to find the right
document. Today, however, a large percentage of all public information is
available and accessible online. In fact, aware of the importance of
access to criminal records, many government agencies have made previously
hard-to-obtain documents accessible for on the Internet. Some cost a small
fee, but others can be obtained for free.
There are many vendors
who sell access to criminal records via the internet. But because of laws
governing the distribution of this information, not all of these records
are available to the public. A majority of these vendors have agreed to
sell information to people you are authorized to obtain it by virtue of
their job (research firms, law firms, criminal justice agencies, law
authorities, etc.)
One of the top reasons that people perform
criminal background checks is to check out prospective employees. This is
what most clients of these research firms are looking for. Employers have
become more diligent about performing these checks mostly due to negligent
hiring lawsuits.
If you are an employer, you have a responsibility
to keep your employees' work environment safe. If you've hired an employee
that has a history of criminal behavior, and you failed to ascertain this
by doing a background check, you can be held liable for any crime they
might commit.
Too many horrible incidents could have been prevented
if only the employer had accessed the public criminal records of a
prospective hire. Don't let the unthinkable happen at your place of
business -- do criminal background checks on all your employees.
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