UNITED STATES
Journal Gazette
By Gary Fields
Wall Street Journal
The green light on the fingerprint scanner glows, indicating it’s time to place Kelli Mattingly’s right hand on the glass. The procedure is repeated with her left hand. In less than a minute, her prints are ready to be sent to the FBI for a criminal background check.
Mattingly is a would-be volunteer for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, which anticipates no problems in taking her on. Rather, the archdiocese, based in Hyattsville, Md., is one of many private employers trying to comply with a patchwork of new state and federal laws requiring background exams with fingerprint checks.
Once a rarity for job applicants, fingerprints are now required in myriad locales for those seeking positions in a host of fields.