Greater San Antonio Metro

The Greater San Antonio metropolitan region, one of Texas’s many large urban clusters, lies in the southern portion of the state, developed around its namesake. Its constituent counties include Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina, and Wilson, with a combined population of about 2.4 million. Alongside San Antonio, the region is home to large communities including New Braunfels, Seguin, and Schertz. The northeastern portion of Greater San Antonio borders the Greater Austin region.

Though one of the state’s smaller metros, Greater San Antonio still boasts a significant economy, with several of the state’s largest businesses headquartered here. Petroleum’s influence remains evident here with Valero Energy and Tesoro Petroleum operating headquarters locally. Radio and communications giant Clear Channel operates out of San Antonio, as does well-known insurer USAA. 

With a large population spread across numerous counties, businesses in Greater San Antonio have a high likelihood of encountering job applicants from outside their home county. While hiring across the whole metro can reduce the effort required to find qualified candidates, it also enhances the importance of careful vetting and verification.

Background checks may already be an integral part of your hiring process but if you operate in a metro region, you must look beyond county lines. 

In areas such as Greater San Antonio, applicants frequently cross county lines to look for work. Limiting background checks to records in your county can mean potentially losing the opportunity to review relevant criminal records stored in another county’s system. Developing a metro-wide background check policy is the key to gathering all the facts for every hiring decision. 

These policies must stay within the bounds of both federal and state rules intended to promote fair hiring. Texas does little to constrain employers in what they may consider during hiring: there are no “ban the box” rules for private employers in Greater San Antonio, and state law allows for the consideration of both conviction and arrest records, the latter of which typically do not appear on background checks. Employers must still avoid running afoul of the anti-discrimination language found in federal statutes such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A complete understanding of your area’s guidelines creates an easier transition from a narrow search to a broader metro-wide background check.

backgroundchecks.com empowers employers with fast record searches for the entire Greater San Antonio region. For all eight counties in the region (Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina, and Wilson), a US OneSEARCH will deliver instant criminal record search results. This report references systems in all 50 states plus U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico. Regional OneSEARCH products are also available, allowing access to state and county records while expanding your search to up to of five other states. For a narrower report, select a Texas-exclusive search. 

Multiple criminal information system sources contribute data to these rich reports, including Texas’s Department of Public Safety, the state sex offender registry, and the Department of Criminal Justice. Each county-level court contributes records. 

Information available varies between systems. The Dept. of Criminal Justice maintains records starting from 1979, while the Dept. of Public Safety’s records of statewide misdemeanors and felonies begin in 1975. Updated weekly, data from the latter system often includes a subject’s:

• Name and full date of birth
• Filing date
• Criminal charges and charge level
• Disposition

With access to this information, it is far easier to proceed through the hiring process with confidence. Find out how backgroundchecks.com tools can aid your efforts to onboard the best and brightest.