108TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1743

AN ACT

To permit reviews of criminal records of applicants for

private security officer employment.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Private Security Offi5 cer Employment Authorization Act of 2003’’.
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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

2 Congress finds that—

3 (1) employment of private security officers in

4 the United States is growing rapidly;

5 (2) private security officers function as an ad6 junct to, but not a replacement for, public law en7 forcement by helping to reduce and prevent crime;

8 (3) such private security officers protect indi9 viduals, property, and proprietary information, and

10 provide protection to such diverse operations as

11 banks, hospitals, research and development centers,

12 manufacturing facilities, defense and aerospace con13 tractors, high technology businesses, nuclear power

14 plants, chemical companies, oil and gas refineries,

15 airports, communication facilities and operations, of16 fice complexes, schools, residential properties, apart17 ment complexes, gated communities, and others;

18 (4) sworn law enforcement officers provide sig19 nificant services to the citizens of the United States

20 in its public areas, and are supplemented by private

21 security officers;

22 (5) the threat of additional terrorist attacks re23 quires cooperation between public and private sec24 tors and demands professional, reliable, and respon25 sible security officers for the protection of people, fa26 cilities, and institutions;
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1 (6) the trend in the Nation toward growth in

2 such security services has accelerated rapidly;

3 (7) such growth makes available more public

4 sector law enforcement officers to combat serious

5 and violent crimes, including terrorism;

6 (8) the American public deserves the employ7 ment of qualified, well-trained private security per8 sonnel as an adjunct to sworn law enforcement offi9 cers; and

10 (9) private security officers and applicants for

11 private security officer positions should be thor12 oughly screened and trained.

13 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

14 In this Act:

15 (1) EMPLOYEE.—The term ‘‘employee’’ includes

16 both a current employee and an applicant for em17 ployment as a private security officer.

18 (2) AUTHORIZED EMPLOYER.—The term ‘‘au19 thorized employer’’ means any person that—

20 (A) employs private security officers; and

21 (B) is authorized by regulations promul22 gated by the Attorney General to request a

23 criminal history record information search of an

24 employee through a State identification bureau

25 pursuant to this section.
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1 (3) PRIVATE SECURITY OFFICER.— The term

2 ‘‘private security officer’’—

3 (A) means an individual other than an em4 ployee of a Federal, State, or local government,

5 whose primary duty is to perform security serv6 ices, full- or part-time, for consideration, wheth7 er armed or unarmed and in uniform or plain

8 clothes (except for services excluded from cov9 erage under this Act if the Attorney General

10 determines by regulation that such exclusion

11 would serve the public interest); but

12 (B) does not include—

13 (i) employees whose duties are pri14 marily internal audit or credit functions;

15 (ii) employees of electronic security

16 system companies acting as technicians or

17 monitors; or

18 (iii) employees whose duties primarily

19 involve the secure movement of prisoners.

20 (4) SECURITY SERVICES.—The term ‘‘security

21 services’’ means acts to protect people or property as

22 defined by regulations promulgated by the Attorney

23 General.

24 (5) STATE IDENTIFICATION BUREAU.—The

25 term ‘‘State identification bureau’’ means the State
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1 entity designated by the Attorney General for the

2 submission and receipt of criminal history record in3 formation.

4 SEC. 4. CRIMINAL HISTORY RECORD INFORMATION

5 SEARCH.

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—

7 (1) SUBMISSION OF FINGERPRINTS.—An au8 thorized employer may submit to the State identi9 fication bureau of a participating State, fingerprints

10 or other means of positive identification, as deter11 mined by the Attorney General, of an employee of

12 such employer for purposes of a criminal history

13 record information search pursuant to this Act.

14 (2) EMPLOYEE RIGHTS.—

15 (A) PERMISSION.—An authorized employer

16 shall obtain written consent from an employee

17 to submit to the State identification bureau of

18 a participating State the request to search the

19 criminal history record information of the em20 ployee under this Act.

21 (B) ACCESS.—An authorized employer

22 shall provide to the employee confidential access

23 to any information relating to the employee re24 ceived by the authorized employer pursuant to

25 this Act.
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1 (3) PROVIDING INFORMATION TO THE STATE

2 IDENTIFICATION BUREAU.—Upon receipt of a re3 quest for a criminal history record information

4 search from an authorized employer pursuant to this

5 Act, submitted through the State identification bu6 reau of a participating State, the Attorney General

7 shall—

8 (A) search the appropriate records of the

9 Criminal Justice Information Services Division

10 of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and

11 (B) promptly provide any resulting identi12 fication and criminal history record information

13 to the submitting State identification bureau re14 questing the information.

15 (4) USE OF INFORMATION.—

16 (A) IN GENERAL.—Upon receipt of the

17 criminal history record information from the

18 Attorney General by the State identification bu19 reau, the information shall be used only as pro20 vided in subparagraph (B).

21 (B) TERMS.—In the case of—

22 (i) a participating State that has no

23 State standards for qualification to be a

24 private security officer, the State shall no-
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1 tify an authorized employer as to the fact

2 of whether an employee has been—

3 (I) convicted of a felony, an of4 fense involving dishonesty or a false

5 statement if the conviction occurred

6 during the previous 10 years, or an

7 offense involving the use or attempted

8 use of physical force against the per9 son of another if the conviction oc10 curred during the previous 10 years;

11 or

12 (II) charged with a criminal fel13 ony for which there has been no reso14 lution during the preceding 365 days;

15 or

16 (ii) a participating State that has

17 State standards for qualification to be a

18 private security officer, the State shall use

19 the information received pursuant to this

20 Act in applying the State standards and

21 shall only notify the employer of the re22 sults of the application of the State stand23 ards.

24 (5) FREQUENCY OF REQUESTS.—An authorized

25 employer may request a criminal history record in-
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1 formation search for an employee only once every 12

2 months of continuous employment by that employee

3 unless the authorized employer has good cause to

4 submit additional requests.

5 (b) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 180 days after

6 the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General

7 shall issue such final or interim final regulations as may

8 be necessary to carry out this Act, including—

9 (1) measures relating to the security, confiden10 tiality, accuracy, use, submission, dissemination, de11 struction of information and audits, and record12 keeping;

13 (2) standards for qualification as an authorized

14 employer; and

15 (3) the imposition of reasonable fees necessary

16 for conducting the background checks.

17 (c) CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR USE OF INFORMA18 TION.—Whoever knowingly and intentionally uses any in19 formation obtained pursuant to this Act other than for

20 the purpose of determining the suitability of an individual

21 for employment as a private security officer shall be fined

22 under title 18, United States Code, or imprisoned for not

23 more than 2 years, or both.

24 (d) USER FEES.—
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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Federal

2 Bureau of Investigation may—

3 (A) collect fees to process background

4 checks provided for by this Act; and

5 (B) establish such fees at a level to include

6 an additional amount to defray expenses for the

7 automation of fingerprint identification and

8 criminal justice information services and associ9 ated costs.

10 (2) LIMITATIONS.—Any fee collected under this

11 subsection—

12 (A) shall, consistent with Public Law 101–

13 515 and Public Law 104–99, be credited to the

14 appropriation to be used for salaries and other

15 expenses incurred through providing the serv16 ices described in such Public Laws and in para17 graph (1);

18 (B) shall be available for expenditure only

19 to pay the costs of such activities and services;

20 and

21 (C) shall remain available until expended.

22 (3) STATE COSTS.—Nothing in this Act shall be

23 construed as restricting the right of a State to as24 sess a reasonable fee on an authorized employer for

25 the costs to the State of administering this Act.
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1 (e) STATE OPT OUT.—A State may decline to partici2 pate in the background check system authorized by this

3 Act by enacting a law or issuing an order by the Governor

4 (if consistent with State law) providing that the State is

5 declining to participate pursuant to this subsection.

Passed the Senate November 17, 2003.

Attest:

Secretary.
108TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1743

AN ACT

To permit reviews of criminal records of applicants

for private security officer employment.