Everything Your CRA Should Know About Continuous Activity Monitoring

In today's fast-paced world, staying informed and vigilant about criminal activity and potential liability issues is essential for businesses and organizations. This is where Continuous Activity Monitoring (CAM) steps in, revolutionizing the way we track and monitor criminal records. In this blog post, we'll delve into the key features and benefits of InformData’s CAM product, highlighting how it enhances the background screening process, mitigates risk and provides real-time updates on criminal activity.

  Prefer listening instead of reading? Me too. Check out our podcast to hear everything your CRA should know about our CAM product: All About Continuous Activity Monitoring

Understanding CAM: Continuous Activity Monitoring

CAM is a cutting-edge solution designed to monitor subjects for new criminal activity on a continuous basis. Unlike traditional county criminal searches, CAM leverages advanced technology to scour thousands of sources every minute, providing comprehensive coverage of over 95% of the U.S. population. This product provides your CRA and your customers access to an extensive range of data sources, including arrest records, warrants, court records, federal databases, and sex offender registries. These sources are continuously updated, with over 100,000 new records added daily, ensuring that the information you receive is up to date and reliable.

One of the standout features of CAM is its ability to identify new criminal cases or activities that may have been missed by conventional search methods. By utilizing Direct-Source Data®, CAM alerts clients or their customers in real time when a new criminal record is found for a monitored subject. This automatic and customizable notification system helps businesses and organizations stay proactive in managing potential risks.

To learn more about the business benefits of Continuous Activity Monitoring, check out our recent blog: The Secret to Subscription Cash Flows for CRAs: CAM

CAM vs. Arrest Monitoring: Going Beyond the Basics

Continuous Activity Monitoring is a major step up from arrest monitoring. Arrest monitoring primarily focuses on notifying you when someone has been booked in jail. It may be helpful to know when an employee is arrested so it’s on an employer’s radar, but sometimes the process doesn’t stop there. And the keyword there is sometimes. An arrest may or may not get formally filed as a criminal case. Additionally, the time between an arrest and a charge being filed varies greatly. For example, we recently had a situation where a subject was arrested in August 2022, and the charge was not filed as a criminal case until February of 2023 – that’s 6 months of crickets and 6 months of exposure for that organization!

The uncertainty of not knowing when (or if) a charge will formally be filed and when to run a standard county criminal search is where CAM becomes meaningful. While arrest monitoring serves a specific purpose, CAM takes it a step further by tracking criminal cases from the moment they are filed with the court until their disposal, providing updates as the case goes through each step of the judicial process. This comprehensive coverage ensures that no important updates are missed and means employers don’t have to worry about wondering when or if to follow up on an arrest alert.

A Powerful Addition to National Criminal Databases

CAM and NatCrim are different in that the purpose of NatCrim is to provide valuable pointer data for pre-screening purposes. It uses static data, meaning it is not updated continuously, so it is a good data set for employers to determine where to run county criminal searches to locate potential records for an individual. CAM on the other hand has a real-time refresh rate, updating every minute from our sources, ensuring the most up to date criminal activity information associated with a monitored subject.

Combining both NatCrim and CAM provides a comprehensive approach to background screening as this powerful combination helps cover both pre-screening and post-hire bases. For example, an employer looking to hire a new employee may first run a NatCrim search on the subject to retrieve pointer data, then they would run county criminal searches in any areas that returned on the NatCrim results. If the subject is hired, the employer can then enroll the individual in CAM to effortlessly monitor their prospective criminal activity with real-time alerts on identifiable risks.

Customizable to Fit Your Needs

My favorite feature of our Continuous Activity Monitoring product is the high degree of customization and filtering options your CRA can implement. These capabilities allow your CRA to tailor the monitoring product to meet both yours and your clients’ varying needs. Our CAM users can set up different profiles for each of their clients with the ability to define what should (and shouldn’t) be returned, whether it’s specific source types, filtering by certain charge categories or offense levels, or desired dispositions.

For example, maybe one of your clients owns a ride sharing business and therefore wants to know about everything, including all traffic activity, while another one of your clients only wants to be made aware of felony level offenses. That can easily be configured in our system. Or let’s say your client only wants felony drug-related charges that don’t have to do with marijuana and are convictions… whew, that’s specific… but we’ve got you covered! This flexibility ensures that you and your customers receive only the most relevant and actionable information.

Got to See it to Believe it

Continuous Activity Monitoring (CAM) represents a significant advancement in background screening and post-hire monitoring. By continuously monitoring subjects for new criminal activity and providing real-time updates, CAM ensures organizations stay informed and take proactive measures to manage potential risks effectively. With its extensive data coverage, customizable features, and user-friendly interface, CAM offers an invaluable tool for businesses, helping them make informed decisions and create safer environments.

Seeing is believing! To truly grasp the power of CAM, consider requesting a demo to witness its capabilities firsthand and understand the customization possibilities. You can even run a few test orders to get the full effect.

Reach out to request a demo and experience the power of CAM yourself.