Police Background Checks Before Being Hired
A couple of days have passed since the last job interview or you just dropped off an application to volunteer at the local daycare centre, when next thing you know, you’re receiving a phone call to head over to the police station for fingerprinting! So what gives? It is becoming more and more common for employers to require a criminal background check prior to hiring an employee or volunteer, especially with positions that require you to interact with children or vulnerable people.
Some of the primary things a background check will search for are:
- criminal convictions
- outstanding charges before the courts
- probation information (including peace bonds, restraining orders, and reporting conditions)
- any prohibitions relating to you (includes firearms, driving, hunting and boat)
- federal or provincial parole information
- information relating to whether you are suspected of committing a criminal offence or are involved in a serious criminal investigation
If your record is flagged, the information is not released directly to the employer. Only you can receive the results of your background check and then submit it to your employer, if you choose. I know people who have had their records flagged simply because they have a common name, so if it happens to you and you can’t recall anything happening in your past, there’s no need to panic.
This brochure may also be helpful if you’ve been asked to submit a police background check.
And if you are required to provide fingerprints, here are the main locations you may choose to go to.
If instead you're an employer and are interested in going about obtaining police background checks from your employees, take a look at some of these books available at the library:
One thought on “Police Background Checks Before Being Hired”
Since background checks these days are now the current trend of the companies before upcoming interviews… we could all conduct our own background check of our selves and see if we have any dirt on us