Part Two 

To gain an accurate picture of an applicant's history, Bill Parker, owner of USABACKGROUNDS.com recommends the following components of a good, thorough search.

 Social Security Number: 

Authenticate the applicant's Social Security Number (SSN) for a three to five year period. This not only validates the number is correct and not fraudulent, but also confirms previous addresses for the time period. This alone may uncover details that the applicant conveniently left off the application for a good reason.

 County Criminal Record Search: 

Usually involves a seven-year felony and misdemeanor search based upon the applicant's current and previous counties of residence.

 Statewide Criminal History Search: 

These searches include criminal records from the official repository in each state. The search, where available, can be very cost effective because it covers the entire state.

 Note: State vs. County Search: 

Even though the statewide search can be more economical than the county searches, especially if the applicant has resided in different counties, the county searches are more thorough. A number of states have reporting problems. Many times records are not reported to the state repository or are missing a disposition. Courts often do a poor job of reporting the outcome of cases. The best search to perform is a county search because all arrests are on record including misdemeanors, felonies, and the case dispositions. If the applicant has moved between counties, often the cost of the background check can rapidly increase.

Eighty percent of the people who have criminal records have the record in the county in which they live or have lived. To cover the other 20% you can combine a county search with a statewide which should provide you with results that you can be confident are accurate.

If one of your applicants has resided in different counties or states, be sure to invest the money to search his or her background up front, because it is much more expensive later to try to recover the cost of damage a violent or untrustworthy employee can do to your business.

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