Criminal background checks for prospective and current employees: Current practices among municipal agencies

The purpose of this paper is to discuss background checks and to describe local government agencies' use of criminal background checks. Although interest in protecting one's organization or public agency from negligent hiring lawsuits is growing, little is known about what government agencies are doing related to criminal background checks on new hires and current employees. We provide data indicating that conducting background checks is relatively commonplace among municipalities, depending on the type of job involved.