|
Introduction |
  
|
|
Introduction |
|
Peace Office Background Investigation Tracking System
POBITS assists public and private sector agencies in tracking the progress of background investigations performed on candidates for employment positions requiring higher standards of personal character and integrity. POBITS is particularly well suited for agencies that hire sworn peace officers, but can be useful to any organization or agency where numerous candidates are simultaneously processed through a comprehensive background investigation. The background process is modeled after the State of California Peace Officer Standards & Training (POST) publication: Background Investigation Manual: Guidelines for the Investigator, published June 2006. This publication provided the content of the Personal History Statement and various reference questionnaires and helped establish the organization of information. This reference was chosen largely because it is the most comprehensive resource available. While the California POST publication is directed to the State of California, we believe it is an excellent resource for any organization in any state and we have been diligent to eliminate bias toward the State of California. The development team also collaborated with other public and private sector background investigation organizations to determine software requirements and optimal usability.
POBITS' primary goal is to provide an organized and effective tool to maximize the investigator's ability to manage any number of background investigations simultaneously. The secondary goal is to maximize electronic communication between all investigation participants and reduce the use of paper data collection and storage, which is more prone to error and mismanagement. Precaution was taken to not impose a process that promotes electronic communication over face-face or telephone interviews. No system can replace the Investigator's good interviewing technique for acquiring in-depth information. But as information is gathered, regardless of how it is obtained, POBITS provides the perfect mechanism for storage and organization.
What POBITS is
POBITS is an information tracking and management system. It organizes information submitted by a number of participants in the background investigation process and provides management with a perspective of work in progress and work accomplished. It produces reports and provides at-a-glance information on prospective candidates. It provides management with a perspective on the status of any single case, a particular Investigator's caseload, or all cases within an area of responsibility.
What POBITS isn't
POBITS is not an automated background investigation tool. POBITS does not make any determinations about a Candidate's suitability nor does it automatically acquire any information regarding the Candidate other than directly through people who provide it. POBITS does not automate the background investigation process other than creating a highly efficient mechanism to acquire information from Candidates and References, which is a primary strength of the application and a feature that revolutionizes the background investigation process.