Greg Davis Quoted in Daily Labor Report

A lengthy article on privacy rights ("Using FBI Databases for Hiring Purposes Raises Many Issues, Commenters Tell DOJ") in the October 6, 2005 Daily Labor Report includes comments to the DOJ that Seyfarth prepared on behalf of our client, The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS), that were used to structure the direction of the piece.

"Before allowing employers to use Federal Bureau of Investigation databases for applicant screening and other employment-related purposes, the Justice Department needs to consider such issues as the accuracy of the databases and how errors will be corrected, according to comments recently submitted to DOJ. … The way an employer conducts a criminal background investigation varies based on the type of job. Some states will perform criminal background checks on an employee or job applicant for any employer that submits authorization from the individual. Others, however, will only perform such investigations for workers in certain occupations.

However, as the National Association of Professional Background Screeners observed in its comments to DOJ, relatively few employers are legally permitted to obtain fingerprint-based criminal histories from the FBI or even the states. Thus, most employers that want to conduct criminal history checks on their workers and job applicants use third-party consumer reporting agencies. A 2004 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 68 percent of employer respondents always performed criminal background checks on job applicants.

The American Trucking Associations observed in its comments that it would be easier for employers if there was a single database with all relevant arrest and conviction information. For example, it said that "the FBI criminal databases should be the central repository of all criminal background checks, including all the criminal information located in state databases." However, other commenters observed that the idea of an accurate, comprehensive national database may be a panacea. "The national database is fairly notoriously inaccurate," Gregory M. Davis, an attorney with Seyfarth Shaw in Chicago who represents NAPBS, told BNA.”