Guardian’s Travels: Where are all the Misdemeanors?

While out on his morning fly, Guardian overheard a team of Human Resource professionals discussing the effectiveness of their background investigations. “We’re fine,” one of them said, “We run country criminal searches in New York, and we get misdemeanors,” she finished.

Guardian knew this team was about to fall into the same trap so many other employers do. “I need to get over there and help before it’s too late!” Guardian said as he swooped down. On his way down, he could see what floor the HR team was on, but the window was sealed shut.

Guardian was forced to walk through the front door and take the elevator up to the correct floor.

“Who or what are you!?” asked a unison of voices stepping out of the elevator that just arrived.

“Guardian’s the name, educating employers on background investigations is the game. Say, can any of you tell me which floor HR is on?” Guardian asked.

One of the employees looked perplexed but answered “three,” and Guardian stepped in to take the ride up.

Once at the right floor, Guardian flew over desks and copiers to get to the HR team. “Excuse me, but I couldn’t help overhearing you talking about county criminal searches in New York. It may seem like they are obtaining all misdemeanors, but that isn’t true,” Guardian said.

“What do you mean?” The HR lead asked, “We saw one misdemeanor on a report last week.”

Guardian replied “Maybe you did, but the only reason for that is because the offense started as a felony, but was pled down and closed all in the county court. That sometimes happens, but the majority of misdemeanors are heard at the local, town, and city level, not the county courts.”

“Wait, so you’re saying county criminal searches in New York don’t obtain all misdemeanors?” Another HR member asked.

“That’s correct, I’ve seen convictions as bad as possession of a weapon and endangering a child not caught by a county criminal search, because the case was heard at a lower level,” Guardian explained.

“So what do we do? How can we get all criminal information on a subject?” The HR leader asked.

“You could use the NYS OCA state search, but that method can quickly get exceptionally expensive. The best choice is to use Cursory Indicator NY from Commercial Investigations LLC. Cursory Indicator NY is able to take a preliminary look at the subject’s criminal history, and if there is no adverse information, the search is compliant. Using this method, you are able to obtain all criminal history for the most valuable price,” Guardian said.

“Wow, thank you! What would we have done without your help today?” The HR team asked.

“Don’t mention it, I’ll always be on the lookout for opportunities to educate employers,”

Guardian said as he began his trip back down the elevator to continue his morning fly.

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