WA State Police WATCH Volunteer Background Checks
Are you a school or a not-for-profit in the state of Washington that is mandated or relies on the WA State Police WATCH Background Checks? Do you have one or several people assigned with the tedious and time consuming task of collecting handwritten paper forms, deciphering sloppy handwriting, and then manually entering info into an online system? Are your volunteers then entered into an Excel spreadsheet or database to remind you in 1 or 2 years to ask them to complete this task all over again?
Sound like a lot of work? And in full transparency, any manual process that includes such a high volume of data entry is fraught with opportunities for mistakes. One keystroke error can be the difference between a convicted sex offender being tagged or being allowed to volunteer.
Until recently, there was no other option. However, SafeVisitor Solutions has worked with the WA State Police to integrate WATCH background checks into our background management system. Schools or organizations that receive the WATCH background checks for FREE, will continue to receive them for FREE.
SafeVisitor is the ONLY visitor management system with an integration to WATCH.
How does this integration work?
1. Adopt SafeVolunteer.
2. We enter your WATCH login credentials into our software.
3. Volunteers (vendors, employees, student teachers, etc.) click on a link, enter their information online.
4. Results are returned to your team.
5. Any potential records have links back to WATCH.
6. Volunteers with no records are automatically approved and receive an approval email along with a SafeVisitor ID Badge.
What are the benefits to organizations using this integration?
· Reduce Errors. This will reduce or completely remove data entry errors that result from deciphering handwritten forms.
· Paperless. No more collecting handwritten forms and having to store the PII data.
· Reduces Labor. No more entering thousands of requests for background checks
· Reduces Volunteer Management. The onboarding of volunteers AND rechecks are 100% automated.
· Automates Background Check Program. Volunteers can now submit a WATCH background check 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week.
· Free Your Team for Other Projects.
SafeVisitor also provides many unique opportunities for organizations that rely on the WA State Police WATCH background checks. WATCH is a statewide search, so it is very limited considering that most volunteers have traveled outside of Washington for business or pleasure, or they live near a state line and may routinely travel to other states as a normal part of their day.
Consequently, there are additional screening options available in SafeVisitor to enhance the WATCH background check:
- ArrestAlert. SafeVisitor is the ONLY visitor management system with ArrestAlert. We have an integration with 80% of the jails in the U.S. ArrestAlert works two ways:
- Part of the background check. We query the jails across the U.S. to determine if there are any additional arrests aside from where a person has lived or worked.
- Real-Time Monitoring. SafeVisitor can provide real-time monitoring of volunteers, employees, vendors, or any classification of visitor. You would receive a real-time alert if one of your volunteers (or other classifications) is arrested and booked into a jail.
- National Criminal Database Search. SafeVisitor uses a criminal database the contains records from throughout the United States.
- Federal Criminal District Court Search. Most state criminal databases do NOT contain criminal records from federal cases. This is important since we have a proliferation in the number of criminal cases being tried in the federal courts. Why? Because of the use of the internet to commit crimes such as identity theft, child solicitation, child pornography, etc.
Would you like to see a 30 minute demo of SafeVisitor and the WATCH integration? You can register here for a 1:1 demo.