Open records for employment

[Will13]

What is the name of your state? Ky

How long are incident reports/police reports public in Kentucky for employment background checks? A certain number of years or no end? And can they be sealed? No charges, just a report.

 

[adjusterjack]

Probably a long time. Depends on a lot of details you haven't shared.

What, exactly, are you concerned about?

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state? Ky

How long are incident reports/police reports public in Kentucky for employment background checks? A certain number of years or no end? And can they be sealed? No charges, just a report.

Whether reports of police incidents can be sealed or expunged depends on the incident.

How long a criminal incident appears on a background report accessible to an employer can depend on the police incident and the background check company used by an employer.

 

[Taxing Matters]

How long are incident reports/police reports public in Kentucky for employment background checks? A certain number of years or no end? And can they be sealed? No charges, just a report.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) a third party background check cannot include information on police complaints or arrests after 7 years from the time of the arrest or report. If you were convicted of a crime, however, that may remain on the background report forever.

However, an employer can do internet searches or other direct searches for information that do not require using a third party information service. These kind of direct searches by the employer are outside the FCRA. So if the employer finds a record of arrest or police report on its own the employer is free to consider it in employment decisions no matter how old that record is.

It does not appear that Kentucky regulates employer access to or use of these records in any way other than allowing you to answer "no" to arrest and conviction questions on an application if the records of those events were expunged.

 

[quincy]

One of the problems with some background check companies is that they mine police arrest data but often do not update their records with the dispositions - unless or until the erroneous information is discovered.

That is one reason why it can be important to run background checks on yourself, to see what an employer might see, and to notify the background check companies that corrections must be made.

 

[Taxing Matters]

That is one reason why it can be important to run background checks on yourself, to see what an employer might see, and to notify the background check companies that corrections must be made.

There are a lot of background check companies out there, and trying to guess which of them any particular employer might use is going to be a difficult proposition. However, under the FCRA the employer must get consent from the applicant/employee to run a background check and if the employer makes an adverse determination based at least in part on that background check then the employer must tell the applicant/employee that and which company furnished the report. The applicant/employee is then entitled to a free copy of the report from the background check company and the applicant/employee has the right to correct any wrong information on it. The applicant/employee can then inform the employer of the incorrect information, too, though whether that will result in reversing the adverse determination is up to the employer.

 

[quincy]

You are right that there are a lot of background check companies.