Alabama § 41-28-15 - Criminal History Background Checks on State Employees and Contractors; Policies.

§ 41-28-15. Criminal History Background Checks on State Employees and Contractors; Policies.

(a) Pursuant to the requirements of Public Law 92-544, the office may conduct a state and national criminal history background check on current or prospective state employees and contractors for the purpose of determining whether those individuals who have or may have access to the state’s telecommunications, information technology, or cybersecurity infrastructure or otherwise perform functions that impact the technical operations of state government have been convicted of a crime that would warrant denying the employee or contractor access to information technology services to state government agencies.

(b) State and national criminal history records checks shall be requested by the office from the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) and shall be applicable to the individual identified in the request. The office shall arrange for the fingerprinting of the individual or for conducting any other method of positive identification required by ALEA. The request shall also specify whether a national criminal history records check is requested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the specified individual in addition to a state criminal history records check. ALEA shall submit the verified fingerprints or other positive identifying information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a national criminal history records check when requested by the office. The results of the state and national criminal history records checks shall be returned to the office by ALEA.

(c) Any criminal history reports received by the office from ALEA shall be marked confidential and shall not be disclosed or made available for public inspection. All criminal history reports received pursuant to this section are specifically excluded from any requirement of public disclosure as a public record. The Secretary of ALEA shall limit access to these reports and may only use the information contained in the reports for the purposes set out in this section.

(d) The Secretary of ALEA may charge fees to the office subject to a fee schedule adopted by the Alabama Justice Information Commission for conducting state and national criminal history records checks.

(e) In conjunction with making criminal history records checks, the Secretary of ALEA shall establish a policy for determining which criminal elements would result in preventing or removing an employee’s or contractor’s access to sensitive or protected information handled by the office.