Nevada companies may have more effective process for pre-employment screening

CARSON CITY — An Assembly bill would make it easier for companies that do background checks on potential employees.

Assembly Bill 26 would allow employment screening companies that hire subcontractors to access criminal history data maintained by the Nevada Department of Public Safety. The bill also opens the service to out-of-state employers for access.

The Assembly Committee on Corrections, Parole and Probation heard the bill Tuesday. Employers can apply to the state for access to records on their own, but often hire companies that rely on subcontractors who have private investigator licenses. The bill allows the third parties to share the information with the companies that hire them.

Julie Butler, a division administrator for the department, told lawmakers that the data is encrypted in transit between the central repository that contains the records and entities allowed to access the information.

Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or (775) 461-0661. Follow @BenBotkin1 on Twitter.