With the tight job market right now, some employers are changing how they do background checks. In addition to the initial background check, they're adding what's called “continuous monitoring.”

These are regular checks of court records that happen after you've been hired.

“Employees, I think, are increasing their expectations for safety and security across the board. And, as a result of that, I think you see a lot of organizations that are trying to make sure that they're putting solutions in place to help support that,” said Tom Miller, CEO at ClearForce.

Tom Miller with ClearForce works with employers who say they're adding continuous monitoring as they work to do more second-chance hiring, That means hiring people with a criminal record.

This impacts an estimated 70 million Americans.

Miller says how long continuous monitoring lasts varies by company and industry.

“Most importantly, they want to be able to provide environments where they can pick up on indications that would be helpful to them to get assistance to individuals that need assistance, to be able to really save and retain employees,” said Miller.

However, some attorneys are questioning the need for additional monitoring.

Ariel Nelson with the National Consumer Law Center says she's concerned about the errors that can come up in background checks, like mismatched or incomplete records.

“Say you have hired someone that, you know, that they have a criminal record and you are an employer who is interested in second chances, and has looked at the data and thought this person could be a good employee then,” said Nelson.

“I don't know that someone whose performance has been good getting another using a continuous monitoring check, do you really want to fire someone if their performance has been exactly what you need?” Nelson said.

Research shows Black Americans are arrested more often and may face disparities in the criminal justice system.

“When we're relying on criminal records, we know who is going to impact the most, and I think it's really important that we don't separate the issues between these background checks and the problems with our criminal justice system when we look at these issues,” Nelson said.

Miller says companies should be focusing on eliminating bias and discrimination in any continuous monitoring program they put into place.

The White House on Thursday spoke about taking action to reduce gun violence.

The Biden Administration is pushing for funding interventions like community policing, street outreach, hospital-based intervention and youth programs.

It's also working with law enforcement to stop the illegal flow of weapons from some southern states with weaker laws into states like New York, which has tougher gun laws.

"It's a pretty straightforward kind of approach, the same that we use for the opioid crisis," said Kris Brown, the president of Brady, an organization that advocates for reducing gun violence. "Look at any kind of situation: You have to look at the supply side and the demand side. For what's happening, this is choking off the supply. It's very, very basic, and it's what most Americans expect the enforcement agencies are doing. They're just falling down on the job."

Brady just released a database of ATF inspection reports of gun dealers.

The report says that most gun stores were lawfully selling weapons. However, shops cited with multiple violations rarely have their license revoked.

Those violations included improperly storing inventory or not training staff to spot illegal purchases or conduct proper background checks. The violations also included selling to people who have not cleared background checks.

Brady says the ATF also only inspects about 7% of the U.S.'s 130,000 gun dealers each year.

"Almost every time, it's just a slap on the wrist, which is pretty terrible, because by law, Congress has precluded the ATF from re-inspecting a gun dealer for one year," Brown said. "There are all kinds of limitations that the NRA has put through Congress on the ATF and doing its job."

Daniel Webster of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence has studied gun violence as a public health issue for 30 years. He says it's hard for law enforcement to stop gun sales on the black market.

"Once a gun is in underground markets, it's very difficult to do anything about it," Webster said. "It's easier to prevent that initial diversion into that underground market."

Webster says states that adopt their own regulations for gun dealers — and enforce them — see fewer sales that move into illegal involvement. He says it's the best initial diversion to keeping guns out of the underground market.

Making gun shops more vulnerable to legal consequences like lawsuits also decreases illegal or negligent practices. Webster sees the Brady ATF inspection database as an important tool to understanding the agency's limitations.

"It will create more pressure on that agency to not look the other way when you have gun dealers who are not complying with laws," Webster said.

Click here to search inspection reports of gun dealers in your area.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A new watchdog report says almost 300 people working for the U.S. Census Bureau last year had "major" issues with their background checks.

The Office of Inspector General report released

last week says a lack of vetting oversight could pose risk to the public and the agency as it hires and deploys hundreds of thousands of census takers for the 2020 census.

As of November 2019, the Bureau "had not adjudicated more than 10,000 U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) background investigations, some which dated back to 2014," the report stated.

About 70 of those workers were in the field last fall verifying addresses ahead of the once-a-decade count.

The report stated that 700 indiviuals had issues that were deemed "major".

Principal Assistant Inspector General for Audit and Evaluation Mark H. Zabarsky proposed a few changes the Bureau should implement.

"Timely adjudication is vital to the Bureau’s ability to take appropriate action to remove unsuitable staff," Zabarsky said in the report. "To address the potential impact on Bureau programs, the Bureau should (1) ensure that background investigations are properly and timely adjudicated, (2) implement requirements to improve governance over background checks, (3) coordinate resources to manage the workload of adjudications, and (4) take appropriate actions to remove unsuitable staff."

More than a dozen other workers with some kind of derogatory information in their background checks had access to Census Bureau facilities and information systems.

WASHINGTON — Families of nine victims killed in a racist attack at a Black South Carolina church have reached a settlement with the Justice Department over a faulty background check that allowed Dylann Roof to purchase the gun he used in the 2015 massacre.

The $88 million deal — which includes $63 million for the families of the slain and $25 million for survivors of the shooting — was set to be announced Thursday in Washington.

“The mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church was a horrific hate crime that caused immeasurable suffering for the families of the victims and the survivors,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday. “Since the day of the shooting, the Justice Department has sought to bring justice to the community, first by a successful hate crime prosecution and today by settling civil claims.”

Roof killed nine people at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, 2015, during a Bible study.

Weeks before the church shooting, Roof was arrested by police in Columbia, South Carolina, on a drug possession charge. But a series of clerical errors and missteps allowed Roof to buy the handgun he later used in the killings.

When Roof purchased the gun, NBC News reports that the FBI examiner conducting the background check was told by deputies in Lexington County, South Carolina, to contact the Columbia Police about the drug charge. However, FBI databases did not have a record for the Columbia Police Department — only the West Columbia Police Department.

The FBI examiner never heard back from Lexington County officials about the clerical error, and Roof was able to purchase the gun after a three-day waiting period.

Roof has since pleaded guilty to multiple charges stemming from the shooting, including nine counts of murder.