Steven Brownstein is one reason today that international pre-employment screening and foreign background checks have boomed and criminal records are available worldwide.
It began as a side business for Steven Brownstein. who was in the 1990's the USA's largest provider of criminal background searches.
With over 60 employees, CrimeSearch operated 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, plus a half-day on Saturdays.
DAC Services, the Tulsa - based sister company had expanded service to Canada and Puerto Rico. Plus the World Gaming Network, another sister company based in Las Vegas, was receiving request for criminal record searches on foreign soil.
That's where I came in. I had already built a giant network of record retrievals throughout the US. We were processing more than 6,000 request per day. And out turnaround time was excellent.
Yes, so that's how it began.
I flew to Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, Canada to visit the courts. We knew about the RCMP's CPIC search but found too may flaws in their record keeping , a long turnaround time, and actually, too much paperwork had to be collected, submitted, and tracked per request. Not particularly cost effective. The contacts I made at the Canadian courts proved to be invaluable. Good, quality searches and little or no paperwork to handle.
I also flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico, met with their staff, and was assigned a public access computer whereby I could come weekly to the court and do searches.
This was the beginning of international searches inthe USA and I was at the forefront.
My techniques were simple - just continue applying the methods that I used providing USA domestic background checks.
And the techniques were successful. We expanded our international search offerings to the total USA pre-emplyment screening industry.
Even though, initially, the quantity of requests was small, I did see that the end result for this foreign search would be high volume. And it is.
Remember, no one was doing international searches. We were the first.
The business expanded and England was the next on the list. I flew to London to run the initial searches at Horseferry Magistrate Court and the Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court. Successfully, I might add.
That was the beginning. India came next, and so on and so forth.
It is my pleasure to continue this dynamic, exponentially growing business opportunity to the pre-employment screening industry. And as one of the first to foresee the beginnings of NAPBS, and having stuck around to see its growth, I say thank you.