Our criminal DNA index
If you have any exposure to the media, you probably already know that the paternity of Anna-Nicole Smith’s child has been determined, thus influencing the fate of the infant and its half-billion inheritance. The identity of the father — not the man Smith was living with — was determined by a DNA test. DNA paternity tests are extremely accurate, as evidenced by the fact that the various claimants to the child immediately agreed with the result (although her grandmother is still fighting for custody).
DNA tests can play an important role in background checks as well. Blood, skin, and various bodily fluids all contain deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which uniquely identifies the individual to whom it belongs. If any of these are left behind at a crime scene, they can be used to identify — or clear — a suspect. DNA sequences can be stored in computer-friendly form, making it possible to search milliions of entries. Since many crimes are committed by repeat offenders, it was decided to begin collecting DNA sample from certain convicts. In 1990, the FBI began the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) with 14 states. The goal was to provide a national DNA index that law enforcement could use. It has since expanded to include all 50 states and the U.S. Army. The index contains over 4 million entries from offenders. Most significantly, it has provided 45,400 matches, which have assisted 46,300 […]
Background checks for college students
Recently the Wall Street Journal ran a story about the increasing use of background checks for university applicants. It seems that resume inflation begins early these days. Applications to college are at record highs, and some candidates will do anything to stand out. According to the Josephson Institute of Ethics, 28% of high-schoolers stole from a store last year, and 60% cheated. (Even more disturbing, 92% of the respondents were satisfied with their personal ethics.) Padding your list of extracurriculars seems like small potatoes after that.
As a result, the academic system has begun to fight back. They are beginning to use spot checks, or in some cases verifying all accepted students. In a reflection of this interest, Kroll Security Group has launched a division dedicated solely to academic verifications. At SentryLink we have an increasing number of schools who rely on us for a criminal background check. Of course, this is all good news for the background screening industry. As the article notes, the National Association of Professional Background Screeners has seen its membership explode over recent years, with the number of active firms going from about 30 to over 400.
If this student behavior is a predictor of how future job candidates will act — and it probably is — our industry is going to be increasingly important.
Retailers and the FBI join forces to fight crime
The FBI announced today that it has been working with two major retail networks to launch a database that will fight retail fraud. The database is called LERPnet and will provide a centralized repository for information on retail crime, including theft, fraud, and “online auction issues”. The service is expected to launch Monday. It features free access for law enforcement personnel and is only $1,200 per year for retailers. Although it is not officially live yet, LERPnet already has over 40 retailers signed up — some of them very well-known — and over 14,000 criminal incidents entered.
Given the negligible price, it is not surprising that retailers are signing up. Organized crime has long seen retail theft as a low-risk, rewarding activity. The police do not treat these offenses as a priority. At best they are local issues, and it is therefore hard to coordinate a response to a geographically distributed attack. Making information on these incidents easily accessible is a good start. A criminal database can be a remarkably efficient way of preventing threats, for example as used in a background check.
While the retailers would prefer not to be the target of criminal activity, the increase there may actually be good news for the rest of us. Of course retail fraud pushes up prices, but still: remember when drugs were the big issue, and we feared an epidemic of crack cocaine? A […]
Keeping sex offenders safe in Scotland
A while back, we reported on the efforts of the Ohio legislature to label cars owned by sex offenders by issuing special license plates. Some argued that this was too intrusive. However, taking a look at the world situation, it appears the United States is out in front on this issue, at least with respect to Scotland.
The United States offers a free national sex offender registy, supplemented by many state ones, which can pinpoint offenders on a map and paint a color-coded picture of unease across America. In this country s.o. crimes are unique in terms of the registrations required, the ease with which offenders can be located, and the resulting impact on real-estate values. And in general, the U.S. is fairly open with criminal records. A dedicated investigator will find few legal obstacles. Elsewhere in the world, the situation is different. In both England and Scotland, the general public is not permitted access to the s.o. registry. Access is limited to cases where vigilante action is not a likely result. And in Scotland, this has led to the ruling that single mothers cannot ask police if their new partner is on the registry.
Since single mothers with children are probably an s.o.’s most attractive target, a number of experts have objected. The article cited above indicates that a policy review is underway that will probably lead to some form of community notification along the lines of […]
FBI warning: Extremists want to drive our school buses
The FBI stirred up a firestorm this month by issuing a bulletin to police warning that suspected members of extremist groups had signed up as school bus drivers.
Naturally, this got immediate media attention. The FBI then held a press conference during which they appeared to be playing down the risk. A spokesman said, “Parents and children have nothing to fear” and “There are no threats, no plots and no history leading us to believe there is any reason for concern.” They added that most drivers were seeking jobs for legitimate reasons. However, the complete text of the bulletin was apparently not released. As others have noted, it seems to be impossible to find it on the FBI website, the Department of Homeland Security, or anywhere else. So there really is no information as to which extremist groups are involved, what characteristics the police should be looking for, or how school districts should protect themselves. Although I am not one for conspiracy theories, it seems likely that someone belatedly realized the political sensitivity of this issue and attempted to reduce its profile.
The scary thing is that as a means of spreading terror, the idea sounds effective. Packed school buses would surely play on public emotion as well as packed planes. Terrorist attacks on school buses have occured before, and the Beslan school attack that killed over 100 children was relatively recent. So more details on the […]
Medical background checks and the OIG exclusions list
Certain professions require more specialized screening than the traditional background check. Medical providers fall into this category. In this post we explore the medical exclusions database provided by the U.S. Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and how it is used for medical employment screening.
The OIG exclusions list is a powerful tool established by Congress to “prevent certain individuals and businesses from participating in Federally-funded health care programs”
. Specifically, the Federal government will not pay for any items furnished, ordered, or prescribed by an excluded person or business. Violations of this policy can be quite costly, at $10,000 per incident, and up to three times the cost of the service. It also goes beyond the obvious services such as those provided by doctors; ambulance drivers also fall under these provisions. Since the government controls the majority of the national health budget through Medicare and similar programs, this is tantamount to cutting off the target’s ability to work in virtually any medical setting. As stated in the OIG special advisory bulletin:
…A provider or entity that receives Federal health care funding may only employ an excluded individual in limited situations. Those situations would include instances where the provider is both able to pay the individual exclusively with private funds or from other non-federal funding sources, and where the services furnished by the excluded individual relate solely to non-federal program patients…In many instances, the practical effect of an OIG […]