I hadn't intended to chime in on this, but what the heck!

For some institutions the appropriate retention period may be longer than
the minimum required by higher authority.  Background checks for jobs in the
Harris County Sheriff's Department, for instance is part of the Employee
Selection Record with a minimum EEOC/State Library and Archives retention
period of 2 years.

BUT the County Attorney requests that all County Employee Selection Records
be kept for 3 years because it could be as long as 6 months from when
someone starts an action against the County until the person with the record
is aware of it.  (Applicant has two years to file + EEOC Processing Time +
Civil Process to Be Served to County + Process to be Forwarded to County
Attorney + County Attorney to Assign Complaint to Appropriate Assistant
County Attorney + Assistant County Attorney to Notify Department Head +
Department Head to Notify Records Clerk + Records Clerk to Notify Records
Center + Procrastination and Ball Dropping = Longer than One Would Expect.)

BUT three years is still not appropriate for the Sheriff's Applicant Records
because applicants go through an extensive and EXPENSIVE background check to
eliminate the patently undesirables and to defer those with minor but recent
disqualifying conduct.  It is not uncommon, however, for permanently
rejected applicants to reapply every few years.  Rather than to repeat the
process every time a person reapplies, it is more efficient to keep the
background checks an extended period (yet to be determined but probably 20
years).

Background Investigations for those hired becomes part of their permanent
personnel record.

Paul R. Scott, CA, CRM
Records Management Officer
Harris County, TX

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