Rolling Background Checks at Work are Becoming More Common
If someone accuses you of a crime, you could be arrested. Being arrested
in New York causes an immediate record because your case and arrest information
can be accessed by other people and could appear in a background check.
Before you even set foot in a courtroom, your case could cause employment,
immigration, and other problems regardless of whether you are actually
innocent or guilty.
According to
Bloomberg news in a July 2018
article, recent changes in society are causing employers to implement periodic
background checks as they go from screening job applicants to looking
for negative background information regarding their current employees.
Rolling background checks are periodic background checks that could be
run annually, monthly, weekly, or daily. Some employers are also notified
immediately when an employee has been arrested. The MeToo movement and
gig economy are partially to blame as employers increasingly worry about
the possibility that someone in their ranks is a sexual predator or could
otherwise subject them to a lawsuit for hiring someone with a record.
Retailers are also moving to implement more criminal record monitoring.
Banks can get sued or fined by the government if they fail to properly
screen prospective and existing employees. J.P. Morgan was recently fined
for failing to properly screen employees which lead to them hiring several
people with criminal convictions.
If you’ve been arrested in New York City, your best strategy is to
avoid conviction and get your case dismissed. Convictions are serious
because they increase the risk that your arrest and case will always show
up in a background check. A dismissal is the best possible way to reduced
the risk of your case showing up in an employment background check because
dismissed cases can be sealed in New York.