Watch any TV crime series or whodunnit on the big screen and you’ve likely been impressed by the power of the FBI’s fingerprint database. Detectives surreptitiously collect a fingerprint from a water glass, submit it through the IAFIS fingerprint system, and boom—everything they need to know about the individual’s criminal history is returned.
It’s easy to understand why some HR professionals might envy FBI fingerprinting, believing it to be the fast-track to flawless background screening. Don’t feel left out—FBI searches are often mistaken for the gold standard in background investigation but they’re not all they’re cracked up to be.
Let’s take a deep dive into the FBI fingerprint database to understand its shortcomings and how to deal with fingerprinting if it is a requirement in your industry.
Limited Access
First of all, FBI fingerprint results aren’t universally available to private employers. The FBI is focused on its law enforcement role and didn’t design the fingerprint database for employment screening purposes. Although one can request their own fingerprint results, the Bureau doesn’t simply hand these out to any company that asks.
FBI fingerprint searches may only be conducted where there is a state or federal statutory requirement to do so.
Various government roles, daycare positions, law enforcement departments, airports, some professional licenses, and many positions regulated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will require fingerprinting. In these situations, FBI fingerprinting is definitely a compliance “must have”—a case of “it’s the law”—but FBI fingerprinting alone is hardly a sufficient background screening solution even then.
Here’s why.
Incomplete and Outdated Information
FBI fingerprint searches have shortcomings that Hollywood would be loath to admit, among the most concerning is the results quality. The data is a hodgepodge. There is no standardized process for local and state agencies to report criminal records to the FBI database.
Data submitted is often incomplete or outdated. Many criminal records have no fingerprint associated with them, and an FBI search will not return those records based on any other identifier, such as name, date of birth, and/or social security number. What’s more, not all state criminal requirements or fingerprints meet the FBI’s standards, so they’re left out, too. And not all records are submitted in the first place.
The end result—an FBI check might give you only one-third of relevant records!
For employers, that means an FBI check could miss key criminal activities, fail to include records from certain jurisdictions, or include only partial information upon which a hiring decision should not be made.
A common occurrence, FBI searches may return records related to an arrest but not the final disposition of the case. Such incomplete data fails to shed light on whether the individual was merely accused of a crime or actually found guilty of it—a critical difference!
Turnaround Time
FBI fingerprint checks can take weeks to complete. Compare that to Asurint, which delivers the vast majority of background reports within 24 hours.
When hiring competition is hot, wait times for FBI fingerprint returns are simply too long. Using a professional background check company for a thorough review of your candidate is a much more candidate-friendly approach.
Case in Point: Hundreds of Thousands of Missing Records from Virginia
Staff members for the Virginia State Crime Commission found something surprising when reviewing the state’s Central Criminal Records Exchange. More than 750,000 criminal records are missing!
Even though the system helps determine eligibility to purchase a firearm—something a felony conviction would bar—the database is woefully incomplete. The gaps extend far beyond “minor” offenses—murder, drunk driving, and many other records have been left out, almost always because the case file is missing a fingerprint.
This is the data the FBI depends on. Now would you trust your hiring choices to this resource alone?
Complement or Alternative: Professional Background Screening
As shocking as this may sound, the best professional background screening companies are more thorough than the FBI. This statement doesn’t apply to generic “national database checks” that some cut-rate background search providers may offer—those tend to suffer the same issues as the FBI database. Companies that go the extra mile, however, can deliver much better information.
Taking Asurint as an example, we:
- Leverage unique court relationships to directly access local and state criminal records. This is our lifeblood in a competitive market, so we are rigorous about tapping only up-to-date information and verifying data quality for each and every background report we deliver.
- Implement automated compliance checks to help ensure that the data in the report can legally be considered in a hiring decision. When using Asurint, hiring managers aren’t accidentally influenced by arrest records without final disposition or similar data problems that can unfairly influence the hiring process. Phew!
- Facilitate candidate disputes with personable interactions. Should inaccurate information be recorded in any jurisdiction, candidates can easily raise the issue with us, and we immediately launch an expedited investigative process. The FBI offers no such dispute mechanism.
- Offer searches beyond criminal records. Criminal history is only part of the picture. Depending on the position, driving records, employment and education verification, professional certification checks, drug screening, etc., can also come into play. A full-service provider can deliver these details along with reliable criminal reports.
So Should You Fingerprint Employees?
If you’re required to do so, absolutely! Fingerprinting offers another identifier that, along with name, date of birth, address history, social security number, etc., can help verify identity and criminal history.
That being said, FBI fingerprint searches—even when required in healthcare, childcare, finance, and other industries—should not be considered a standalone solution. Fingerprinting can provide an extra layer of security, when access to FBI results is permitted, but professional background screening is still a necessary component of a fully functional system.