About Us
Cage & Associates, Ltd/Safe-Screen is a licensed private investigative and Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) that generates Consumer Reports and/or Investigative Consumer Reports for legitimate organizations with a valid permissible purpose on consumers (applicants) who have provided appropriate Authorization and Disclosure as outlined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
No reports or services can be ordered from this site (www.safe-screen.com). From this site you can learn more about our company, services and background checks. In order to comply with a variety of federal and state law, we must establish a relationship with a legitimate organization, conduct due diligence on that organization and their reason for conducting background checks and establish an account. Once an organization is established as a client, they have access to a secure, 24/7 site and can order, retrieve, search and store reports.
Meet our CEO
William Cage
William C. Cage has over forty years experience in law enforcement, investigations, protective services, and security. William C. Cage CEO Cage & Associates, Ltd./Safe-Screen
Bill joined the United States Air Force in 1979 and spent over four years as a Law Enforcement Specialist. Bill left the active duty air force for an active Air Force Reserve assignment where he was assigned as a criminal investigator and later to a major narcotics investigative team. Back in the civilian world, he became a member of the Culver City, CA police department, where he worked uniformed patrol. During the late 1980s, Bill joined the private sector as the director of operations of a private patrol agency, where he obtained his private investigator’s and private patrol operator’s licenses. There, he oversaw operations to protect museums, foreign government consulates, state parks, schools, and various neighborhoods. By the end of the 1980s, Bill formed Cranston Investigative Services, Inc. in California and was involved in many insurance, risk management, third-party administrator cases, and bail enforcement. Additionally, Bill conducted background investigations for companies such as Motel 6 and Joico International.
In 1990, Bill was recalled to active duty with the United States Air Force and deployed in support of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. At the end of 1993, Bill moved to Las Vegas, where he joined one of the larger gaming companies in town. In the fall of 2005, Bill was asked to assist with Hurricane Katrina law enforcement operations. Bill volunteered to fly down to Gretna, LA, a suburb bordering New Orleans to be sworn in as a local law enforcement officer and assist the people of South Eastern Louisiana. Bill worked protecting relief ships and workers, manned checkpoints, patrolled via police ATV in storm-damaged areas, assisted local police on patrols, conducted advance surveys and risk assessments as well as protective escorts of various local government officials and dignitaries. Bill spent 12 years in the gaming industry and until 2006 was the investigations manager for the legendary Stardust Resort & Casino.
Since leaving the casino industry, Bill has worked for many federal government entities, primarily conducting background investigations in support of national security as well as a variety of work for major defense/government contractors and local Las Vegas firms.
Bill has presented to various groups to include ASIS International, local training facilities, and various corporate clients on such matters as suspicious person indicators, arrest and detention laws, internet safety, executive protection, security officer training, and homeland security issues, to include at the Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana.
Bill is licensed by the State of Nevada, Office of the Attorney General, Private Investigators Licensing Board as a Private Investigator, Private Patrolman, and Security Consultant. He has been awarded the Certified Professional Investigator (CPI) designation from the California Association of Licensed Investigators (CALI) and the Personal Protection Specialist (PPS) certification from the Executive Protection Institute (EPI). Bill has received a Heroic Service Medal from the Clark County (NV) Commission as well as Security Professional award from the Las Vegas Security Chief’s Association. Bill was presented with a Meritorious Service Medal from the Gretna (LA) Police Department and the Outstanding Professional Achievement Award 2008 from the Nine Lives Associates, the alumni group of the Executive Protection Institute. Bill holds the Advanced Certification in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by the National Association of Professional Background Screeners.
Bill has been a member of the Las Vegas Chapter of ASIS International, serving over 8 years as the Legislative representative, 2 years as the Vice-Chairman, and 2 years as the Chairman. Bill is also a founding member of the Board of Executive Protection Professionals (BEPP).
Select from the drop down menu below for more information on a variety of issues.
The Private Investigators Licensing Board (PILB), Office of the Attorney General, State of Nevada has licensed Cage & Associates, Ltd. dba Safe-Screen as a private investigator, private patrolman (security firm) and security consultant. Chapter 648 of Nevada Revised Statutes mandates the Board to regulate the standards of conduct for these professions in order to protect the public safety and general welfare of the people of this state. This agency is responsible for conducting background investigations on applicants, administering compliance audits of licensees, preparing disciplinary matters for Board review and investigating various complaints of misconduct of a licensee or unlicensed activity. This agency is pro-active in promoting effective regulation and enforcement; provides training and education to our licensees as well as the general public; and is focused on eliminating unlicensed activity.
In order to conduct background checks/screening in Nevada, for an entity (employer, organization, apartment complex, etc.)in Nevada or on a Nevada resident, the background firm must be licensed as Private Investigator in Nevada. You can conduct a license search on the PILB site at http://nevadapilb.glsuite.us/
FCRA Advanced Certification, National Association of Professional Background Screeners.
CEO William Cage has been awarded the NAPBS FCRA Advanced Certification. This certification is presented to members of the NAPBS after required training and successfully completing the examination. Recipients demonstrate a advanced knowledge of the FCRA, and personal commitment to compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the primary federal regulation over the background screening industry.
Safe-Screen’s founder and CEO has 25 years’ experience as an investigator. When he first started, a background investigation was initiated when a client called, pertinent information was written down, some information and any required release was faxed, or even sent via US Mail. An investigator drove to the county clerk, courthouse and other locations. Parking fees were paid, lines were waited in and paperwork was shuffled around.
Advances in technology have dramatically changed the background investigation industry and created a new industry of background screening. Superior technology is behind the superior services of Safe-Screen.
Some of the features and benefits of Safe-Screen’s on line system include:
∙ Online Application with Electronic Signature
All you do is select which package of searches you want to order, enter your applicants name and email address and you’re done!
The online application process utilized by Safe-Screen was the first of its kind, and continues to offer new and innovative features. With QuickApp™, you avoid order-entry errors and liabilities by having the applicant complete an online application and electronic release which populate a background check order ready for processing. The process includes legal disclosures, authorization, digital signature, and the entering in of the applicant’s identifying information.
The Safe-Screen platform is powered by TazCloud, the most powerful and connected independent screening platform in the industry. TazCloud is the number one background screening technology platform available.
TazCloud is the most comprehensive background screening network available, offering robust SaaS-based screening applications, partner integrations, and powerful business intelligence tools. TazCloud delivers all of its computing services over the internet through a powerful cloud-based architecture that offers faster innovation, flexible computing resources, automation, management tools, new development paradigms, high levels of security and economies of scale that are not financially or technically feasible through private or data center hosted platforms.
The Safe-Screen company tag line is Keeping You Safe™, and we take that seriously. These are but some of the security measures we take to keep our background check clients and applicants information secure.
Security is a high priority and an integral part in the operation of the Safe-Screen applicant screening system. Attention is given to threats such as viruses, denial of service attacks, and other malicious activities over the Internet, as well as to maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive application data such as credit reports, social security numbers, and other personally identifying information. Safe-Screen uses industry-leading technology to secure its operating environment, including;
– Data Encryption (AES 256)
– Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
- PCI – DSS Compliant.
- eI3PA compliant.
- SSAE 18-SOC 3 Compliant
– Enterprise Security
– Authorize.net Verified Merchant
– Center for Internet Security (CIS) Benchmarks
– Strong Hashing
– Daily Releases insure platform is constantly updated.
Electronic signature and document management.
In an effort to reduce the number of physical pieces of paper floating around and to increase the safety and security of sensitive information, Safe-Screen uses an electronic signature and document management system. Some of the security measures employed to secure these documents include;
Data Center Security, System Security, Operational Security, Application Security, Full 128-bit SSL encryption for all documents and data, Only e-signature system fully certified by Salesforce.com, Transaction Security, PDF documents encrypted and password protected, Signed documents verified by Adobe digital signatures.
The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (“E-Signature Act”) became effective in the US on October 1, 2000. Since then, online electronic signatures on commercial transactions and most other agreements have a legal status equivalent to a written signature.
US state law modeled on the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) also provides a legal framework for electronic transactions. It gives esignatures and records the same validity and enforceability as manual signatures and paper-based transactions. This UETA was adopted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) in 1999.
The 1999/93/EC Directive on Electronic Signatures was signed in December 1999 to establish a common framework for electronic signatures, and was subsequently complemented by the Electronic Commerce Directive. All principal member states have since incorporated EU e-Signature guidelines into their national legislation.
The UK has adopted and implemented certain provisions of the EU’s Electronic Commerce Directive in the Electronic Communications Act 2000, which makes e-signatures legally admissible in the UK. The Consumer Credit Act of 1974 was amended in 2004 to further facilitate the electronic signing of credit agreements.
Secure Fax
Occasionally there is a need to send or receive a fax. Safe-Screen uses a secure fax service instead of a fax machine. While there are a variety of fax to email/computer to fax services, they are inherently not a secure method of transmission. Eliminating the fax machine allows for sending and receiving document in an electronic formats, directly from the systems we are operating in, saving time, paper, ink and allowing for greater accuracy and security we use a secure method that encrypts the data and that meets and exceeds the requirements for sending Protected Health Information (PHI) as required by the regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA).
Our secure fax number is 855-879-0909 and works like faxing from any fax machine.
Paperless Processes
The background screening business can be a paper intensive industry. Service agreements, due diligence forms, order requests, background screening reports and more. We have modeled our internal business processes to take advantage of technology that provides paperless transactions and greater security. With our QuickApp feature, backgrounds can be ordered, submitted, authorized and reported via a paperless process. For various specific forms that often come up, (specific release for a particular educational institution or government agency, etc.)we use electronic signature technology and electronic secure fax to move documents around the world, yet maintain control and security of the data. Fewer papers mean less to store, reduced risk of compromise, less waste of paper and ink and no shredding. While there will always be the need to retain some actual paper documents, we are reducing what we can.
Wind Power
The computer servers that run this website are powered with 130% wind power. Server facilities use large amounts of electricity to operate the equipment and to provide cooling for it. The host facility has purchased Green e certified Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) for 130% of the electricity it uses to power and cool their servers, in their local home state.
No reports or services can be ordered from this site (www.safe-screen.com). From this site you can learn more about our company, services and background checks. In order to comply with a variety of federal and state law, we must establish a relationship with a legitimate organization, conduct due diligence on that organization and their reason for conducting background checks and establish an account. Once an organization is established as a client, they have access to a secure, 24/7 site and can order, retrieve, search and store reports.
It may or it may not. The first factor is the “scope” of the investigation: how far back are we going? Generally we check at least the previous 7 years. Secondly are federal and various state laws that limit arrest only (as in it did not lead to a court conviction, just an arrest) data to 7 years. After 7 years, we cannot report arrest information to you. An arrest that does not get prosecuted might only have a record with the arresting law enforcement agency. While we can, and at times do, check records of some law enforcement agencies, they tend to be more expensive, have fees associated with them and often require separate release forms that need to be signed in ink before a notary in order to submit the search request. Lastly is jurisdiction. If we check every place the applicant has lived or worked within the scope of the investigation and one summer they drove across country and were arrested in some jurisdiction a thousand miles from anywhere they have had a connection, the arrest would not show up in a background screening report. If it led to a conviction, and that court jurisdiction reported that conviction to a source such as our InstaCriminal Multi-jurisdictional database, we would pick that up and verify the hit directly with the court.
How can employers avoid negligent hiring liability?
Conduct your due diligence by screening your applicants. Background checks should be part of a good overall employment screening program.
What is negligent hiring?
While we are well versed in matters regarding backgrounds, we strongly suggest you contact a lawyer with any questions pertaining to employment law.
Having said that, negligent hiring may be found where the employee had a reputation or record that showed their propensity to misuse the kind of authority given by the employer. This record would have been easily discoverable by the employer, had the employer exercised ‘due diligence’. For example, a victim of sexual harassment in the workplace may have a cause of action for negligent hiring on the part of their employer if they can show that the employer was aware of the harasser’s termination from a previous position for the same behavior. (Wikipedia.org)
Negligent retention occurs where a party failed to remove an employee from a position of authority or responsibility after it became apparent that the employee was in fact misusing that authority or responsibility in a way that posed a danger to others. (Wikipedia.org) This is one reason why ongoing or “infinity” screening is conducted. You ran a background check on your employee when you hired him, but what do you know about their criminal or driving record 5 years later?
Premises liability is the liability for a landowner for certain torts that occur on the real property. In sum: Premises liability law is the body of law which makes the person who is in possession of land or premises responsible for certain injuries suffered by persons who are present on the premises. (Wikipedia.org)
For these and other theories of negligence, you have not performed adequate due diligence when you hire employees, vendors, or volunteers, and have not checked their background.
Why conduct background checks?
That’s a good question, why should you screen your employees? For some organizations, they are required by a variety of federal, state, or local law. Federal acts such as HIPPA, the US Patriot Act, or the Federal Sentencing Guidelines discuss background checks for a variety of industries or positions. Other entities find that it is just good business practice. Did you know that 80 percent of U.S. companies use background checks as part of a pre-employment background screening program according to a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)? Other situations are similar, such as organizations who utilize volunteers, students of a training or educational institution, etc.
What do I do if something is wrong on my background screening report?
If you find inaccuracies in a background screening report (Consumer Report) that we prepared for an organization, you may dispute those with us. Fill out our Consumer Report Dispute Form (below) online using Adobe or Adobe Reader (a free software program), print the completed form, sign the form (in black ink), attach any documents you may have proving your claim and fax everything to us at 855-879-0909. You may also mail the forms to us. Within 30 days, we will re-investigate the issues you bring to our attention.
Consumer Report Dispute Form
Yes, we are licensed and certified through a variety of entities. Safe-Screen is a registered fictitious firm name (doing business as) and registered trade/service mark of Cage & Associates, Ltd.
Nevada Secretary of State, General State Business License No. NV20091078868
Nevada Private Investigators Licensing Board, Private Investigators License/Private Patrolman/Security Consultant #901/901A
Clark County Business License, Private Detective: 2000059.305, Security Firm: 2000109.307
Veteran Owned Small Business, US Department of Veterans Affairs, Center for Veterans Enterprise (CVE)
FCRA Basic Certification, National Association of Professional Background Screeners
Dunn and Bradstreet, DUNNS Number: 135768302
Federal CAGE Code: 4X1W8
Federal System for Award Management (SAM): 135768302
The servers hosting the Safe-Screen platform site have achieved the Verizon Cybertrust Security Certification.
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards validation, (PCI DSS) First Data PCI Rapid Comply
Verified Merchant, Authorize.net
Verified domain and business, SiteLock
Manta, Verified Business
How will my searches be returned?
Through the same secure, online platform. From there you can review the report, assign decision codes that will help you to at a glance see which applicants “passed”, which ones you need to review, or which ones you are sending a required Pre-Adverse/Adverse Action Letter.
How do I order search requests?
Once we establish an account for a client organization (2-3 business days, an additional 1-4 business days if you want to receive access to credit reports), any authorized user can log into our secure system 24/7 and order a background screening report request. With our QuickApp™ feature, you can start a search with as little as your applicants name and email address. Our system takes care of notifying the applicant, electronic authorization and application and notification to you when the report is complete. You can also manually type in the required personal information and upload a copy of a signed authorization. For large volume clients, you can also merge information into a .csv template and upload that one template. Additionally we can set up a web page that can be linked to that contains a background application specific to your organization.
Your background check will show everything in a person’s background, right?
No. First of all, we don’t know what is meant by “everything”, as that tends to mean different things to different people. The arrest record example above is the most common for unreported issues. Also the reporting restrictions vary. For example, in Nevada, we can report a criminal conviction for any amount of time, unless we also supply you with a credit report, then we can only report to you criminal convictions during the preceding 7 years.
While we can conduct a background that equals that the government does for a Top Secret security clearance, those cost thousands of dollars and take a couple of months to complete. The majority of our background screenings take less than 3 business days, depending on responses from other agencies.
How much does a background check typically cost?
There is no standardized fee for a “background check”. We operate off an a la carte concept, picking those specific products that make sense based on the specifics and risks of the job for which you are hiring. When signing up for Safe-Screen services, we consult with a company representative to determine what types of positions you are hiring for, what the specific risks are for those positions, and make a suggestion for each type of position. We highly recommend that each position receive the same background check. We have numerous background screening packages ranging from $24.00 to several under $100.00 to a high of $495.00 for a in-depth, comprehensive background investigation.
At Safe-Screen, pre-employment screening generally costs less than the employee’s first day of pay. This is a small price considering that a bad hire can cost 30% of the employee’s first year salary, according to US Department of Labor data.
An additional consideration is that Safe-Screen is managed by real investigators. We are not an instant online data provider, simply providing you with pages of raw, meaningless data. While most of the instant, online data sellers are in violation of federal and often state law, Safe-Screen is in full compliance with the FCRA, other federal and state laws. Safe-Screen is a fully licensed private investigative and security consulting agency. All background screening reports are reviewed by a live person familiar with the field before we send it out to our client. We have many years of experience and access to multiple resources with the most up to date information on the many laws regulating what can and cannot be reported.
Our system meets all relevant regulations regarding the transmission, storage and use of the background screening reports we provide.
There are NO Sign Up Fees, NO Term Contracts, NO Minimum Orders and NO Monthly Fees. If you elect and are eligible to receive employment related credit reports, an inspection will be required by a third party firm of your business offices. This is a requirement by the credit bureaus and a fee is charged one time for this inspection.
All fees charged by Safe-Screen regarding searches are for us conducting the search. There may be additional feels, as some courts, DMVs, etc., occasionally charge a separate fee. Many courts, DMV’s, schools, etc. charge a separate fee. We pass that nominal charge along directly to our client. Should an applicant have used a different name (married, maiden, name change, etc.) during the scope (period of time we are searching, almost always at least 7 years) will require us to conduct a separate search of each original source, with the associated additional charge. The fees charged for county/federal court-house criminal records searches do not include obtaining copies of actual documents. Contact Customer Support for information about obtaining documents from any courthouse in the US/Canada. International records are often obtainable, although at an increased cost and turnaround time from our US searches. There are a few countries that we are unable to conduct our services due to their laws, political issues, armed conflict, etc.
What does Safe-Screen do?
Safe-Screen conducts background checks for pre-employment screening, screening of current employees, and screening of volunteers, students and members of professional associations.
Who can use Safe-Screen?
Safe-Screen is a service for employers and other organizations with a need to legally screen employees, volunteers, vendors, students and members. We do not conduct backgrounds for dating or personal purposes, to find out about your neighbors or other purposes not covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act, which is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), provides the guidelines employers need to follow when performing employment screening. The FCRA requirements apply whenever an employer requests a “consumer report” or “investigative consumer report” from a Consumer Reporting Agency such as Safe-Screen. A “consumer report” includes any written, oral or other communication of any information by a consumer reporting agency regarding an individual’s credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics or mode of living which is used as a factor to establish eligibility for employment. The FCRA requires that employers must comply with certain reporting requirements when using an agency to screen employees or applicants.
To obtain a report, the employer must first provide certification to the consumer reporting agency that they:
• Are requesting the report for employment purposes (which includes evaluating an applicant or employee for employment, promotion, reassignment or retention).
• Have provided the required disclosure to the applicant or employee.
• Have obtained the necessary written authorization to request the report.
• Will provide the applicant or employee with a copy of the report and a written description of the applicant or employee’s rights before taking any adverse action based in whole or in part on the report.
• Will not use the information from the report in a manner that violates federal or state equal opportunity laws.
The FCRA requires any employer intending to obtain a consumer report to first make a clear and conspicuous written disclosure to the applicant or employee that a consumer report may be obtained for employment purposes. The disclosure cannot be included in an employment application or other document that contains additional information.
For the complete text of the FCRA,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq
Do you use database searches for your criminal record searches?
Like most background check companies, we supplement our county level criminal record searchers by obtaining data from one of a couple of huge, private databases that obtained data from many original sources, such as courts, administrative office of the court, department of corrections, etc. Conducting a search of one of these databases with hundreds of millions of records is a good idea because it’s essentially instant and inexpensive.
However, we don’t report “hits” immediately. Why? The FCRA requires us to only report the most accurate, up to date information. As the information comes from a database and not original source information, any changes to the record would not necessarily show up in the database information. Therefore, if we receive a “hit”, we go to the original source information (i.e. the actual courthouse where a criminal record is maintained) to ensure the “hit” is on the correct person (some database “hits” don’t have enough identifying information to conclude that this is the correct person) and that we have the most up to date information, such as disposition, cases closed, dispositions that are withheld, etc.
In addition to a trained, experienced court-house records researcher available for all 3,143 counties (or equivalents) in the US, we have direct electronic access to over 1200 different court jurisdictions for an instant or very short-term turn around records search.
Contact
