§ 145.002.Criminal History Background Check

The obligation at the centre of the chapter, with two ways to meet it.

Before associating with or hiring an officer, employee, or prospective employee in a position whose duties include entry into another person’s residence, the company shall:

(1) obtain from the Department of Public Safety or a private vendor all criminal history record information relating to that person; or (2) ascertain that the person holds in good standing an occupational license issued by a Texas licensing authority that performed a criminal history background check before issuing or renewing it.

The second route avoids duplicating work the state has already done. Plumbers, electricians and other licensed trades are checked as a condition of licensure, and the section accepts that check rather than requiring another.

But it is conditional in two ways: the licence must be in good standing, and the licensing authority must have run the check before issuing or renewing. A licence from an authority that does not check does not satisfy the section.

"Associating with or hiring" is broader than employment, and it reaches officers as well as employees — so a company cannot avoid the requirement by the label attached to the relationship.

"All criminal history record information" under the first route is unqualified. The section does not limit the check by offense type or lookback period; those limits appear in the presumption provision, which decides what the check must show.

The section imposes a duty and no sanction. Its force comes from the presumption available to companies that comply.