Arkansas.gov to Expand Access to Criminal Background Check Information

Business Wire, July 31, 2007

New Arkansas Law Allows Third-Party and Service-Provider Access with Subject's Consent

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Effective July 31, 2007, third parties and service providers may have access to the Arkansas State Police Online Criminal Background Check System with the consent of the subject.

Previously, state law limited system access to professional licensing boards and employers. A new law passed in the recent legislative session allows the Arkansas State Police to release criminal history information to agents of employers or persons with the written consent of the subject.

This new law will allow entities such as staffing agencies, landlords/property owners, financial institutions, background check/investigative companies and law firms to run criminal background checks on individuals with the person's written consent. The online system offers almost instant results compared to the paper process, which could often take several weeks.

The Arkansas State Police are also working with the Information Network of Arkansas to enhance the Criminal Background System to allow FBI fingerprints to be scanned electronically and sent through the system. Authorized agencies will receive the FBI fingerprint results within five business days instead of several months.

The Criminal Background Check System can be found at the state's official Web site, http://www.Arkansas.gov/criminal, and requires an INA subscription account. Since its launch in 2004, the Arkansas State Police have processed more than 280,000 searches for professional licensing boards and employers through the Criminal Background Check System.

The online Criminal Background Check System was created at no cost to taxpayers in partnership with the Information Network of Arkansas, which also built and maintains the state's Web portal at http://www.Arkansas.gov.

About Arkansas.gov

Arkansas.gov is the official Web site for the state of Arkansas and a service of the Information Network of Arkansas Board. The Information Network of Arkansas is a collaborative effort between the state of Arkansas and Arkansas Information Consortium that helps state government entities Web-enable their information services. Arkansas.gov was built and is marketed, operated, and maintained by Arkansas Information Consortium, a Little Rock-based, wholly owned subsidiary of eGovernment firm NIC (Nasdaq: EGOV).

About NIC

NIC manages more eGovernment services than any provider in the world. The company helps government communicate more effectively with citizens and businesses by putting essential services online. NIC provides eGovernment solutions for 2,600 state and local agencies that serve more than 67 million people in the United States. Additional information is available at http://www.nicusa.com.