SouthBendTribune.com: Nonprofits seek access to FBI database

SouthBendTribune.com: Nonprofits seek access to FBI database: "Nonprofits seek access to FBI database
By JEFF PARROTT
Tribune Staff Writer
Those who work with South Bend-area Little Leaguers are subject to an Indiana criminal background check, but what if they have moved in from another state?
League officials must rely on the volunteer to be honest about previous addresses and then pay to run checks for those locations.
A federally funded pilot project wants to eliminate that margin of error.
A 2002 congressional bill would have spent $100 million to create a national center where local nonprofit organizations that serve children, the elderly and disabled could access the FBI's fingerprint-based national criminal database to screen potential employees and volunteers.
The bill cleared the Senate but died in the House. In 2003, the federal PROTECT Act authorized an 18-month pilot project with three groups, the National Council of Youth Sports, the Boys and Girls Clubs and MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership."