When employers check the names of applicants for certain jobs – teachers, cops, lawyers – for prior criminal infractions, there is a 1 in 4 chance that even if there is a past conviction, it isn’t in the system.

A recently completed state audit of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Computerized Criminal History System and Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Corrections Tracking System finds that prosecutor offices and courts submitted disposition records in 73.7 percent of arrests made in 2009, which means that the state’s criminal record search function “is not complete,” according to the audit, which goes on:

A significant number of prosecutor and court records are not reported to DPS, which impairs the quality of information that DPS uses to conduct criminal history background checks. For example, 1,634 (7.65 percent) of 21,351 offenders whom TDCJ admitted to jail, prison, or probation in November 2010 did not have corresponding prosecutor and court records in DPS's Computerized Criminal History System. In addition, information that DPS provides as part of its criminal history background checks does not include probation records.

There are a few reasons for this oversight, which the audit painfully exposes. Among them: If incorrect information is submitted by a prosecutor’s office or court, it must be rectified manually via fax. Not email, fax. We didn’t even know people used fax anymore. Are they still reading the Daily Slab with their pterodactyl wings, too?

Among the top counties for diligence in reporting arrest and corresponding disposition records was Harris, with a 97 percent rate. Tarrant County ranked near the bottom among larger counties, with a 65 percent rate.

The assessment also found that nearly half of the state’s Community Supervision and Corrections Offices had not reviewed arrest records disseminated via flash, or immediate bulletin. The probation offices in Bexar County had not reviewed the new incoming data for a year.

Throughout the 51-page report, much is made of the progress made since a 2006 audit found many of the same problems.

Both the TDCJ and DPS concurred with the findings in the new audit and outlined improvements they plan to make.