There is no doubt that low-level background checks have become a commodity. You can search the web to find any number of automated searches promising things like a "comprehensive, nationwide criminal background check." Unfortunately, The Daily Caveat is here to tell you that no such animal exists and the advice your parents gave you still holds true - if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Now, not every job or business decision necessitates "the Cadillac plan." There is no question that there is a difference in the due diligence burden for a new fry cook at McDonalds versus the new chief executive of a milti-billion dollar company. But in every case, no matter how big or small the budget, please be wary of an services that seems to offer a high level of risk mitigation at an impossibly low pricepoint. At the end of the day, you are most likely getting only as much as you paid for.

Investigations, to be worth anything must be thorough, concise and most of all, conducted by human beings, not just search fields in a database. Whether you opt to work with Caveat Research or one of our many competitors, my advice is, to the extent possibly, do not shop on price. Make your choice, rather, on the investigator's ability to help you understand the work undetaken on your behalf. Only through that understanding can a true accounting for costs be obtained. Failing to understand your own investigation is what leads to situations like this one, in Indiana:

Screening missed teacher's drug case - Case of a Hoosier's Florida arrest record exposes limitations of background checks

By Staci Hupp
April 2, 2006
Indianapolis Star

"It's scary that someone could be prosecuted in another state and come to Indiana and we don't know about it," said Rep. Robert W. Behning, R-Indianapolis, who heads the House Education Committee.

At least 41 other states have switched to FBI screenings that use fingerprints to scan criminal records nationwide. Teachers who apply for licenses in Indiana are subject only to the state's limited criminal history check, a computer screening that relies on incomplete records from county courthouses.

Money typically is the sticking point, according to Indiana State Police officials who have pushed for changes. Schools would have to pay up to $39 for FBI background checks, while the state system is available for free.

No one knows how many offenders have slipped through screening in Indiana. A check of newspaper stories from the past decade shows that at least three school employees convicted of violent crimes passed background checks.

Indiana bars those convicted of drug dealing, crimes involving children and some other felonies from teaching.

But first it has to spot them...

More here.

-- MDT

Labels: background checks, database