The USPS will soon use its network of retail postal facilities to fingerprint new-hires nationwide. Candidates for jobs at the USPS have criminal background checks prior to being hired.
The USPS hires approximately 120,000 people annually, and background checks help the agency retain its “most trusted federal agency” status. Local police stations have done the fingerprinting in the past. However, processing can take up to three weeks. In-house capabilities will shorten response time to closer to three days.
The USPS is also considering fingerprinting services as a revenue source. One option is to provide fingerprinting services to the public for such things as passports.
Federal News Network reports that IDEMIA National Security Solutions (NSS) will provide the services. Shane Powers, VP of operations at NSS, credits the success of the program, and its potential for growth, to the USPS’s vast delivery network.