Hooks

Some folks have been inquiring why Alameda Little League does background checks. Little League International, Inc. (LLI) takes the safety of its children participants very seriously. In 2007, Little League instituted a program where it is mandatory for all volunteers to be screened annually. LLI provides to its districts a screening service that searches through the state level sex offender registry and also a criminal records database of over 270 million records.

Volunteers have expressed concern regarding the process and how their confidential information is protected. The following is the process used as submitted by Alameda Little League President, Ron Matthews:

The system that is in place is that I am the person who receives the application, not a committee. Any documents are scanned into a PDF and shredded. I transmit them securely to our Director of Legal Affairs, Scott Hennigh (an accomplished attorney) who submits them to Lexis-Nexis for the background check. After I receive a thumbs up on each applicant the PDF’s are deleted from my computer and his.

Little League International, Inc. has an entire section on its website devoted to this subject, and requires me to take this matter very seriously in order to protect our children from abuse. I am also required to sign and verify that I have checked every volunteer in the League. Here is a passage from the link provided:

Press here for summary of the LLI prescribed process --> background checks summary

Press here to be taken to the LLI website for information regarding background checks.