(a) Authorization. – Upon receipt of an application for a license, registration, certification, or permit, the Board shall conduct a background investigation to determine whether the applicant meets the requirements for a license, registration, certification, or permit set out in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 74C-8(d). The Department of Public Safety may provide a criminal record check to the Board for a person who has applied for a new or renewal license, registration, certification, or permit through the Board. The Board shall provide to the Department of Public Safety, along with the request, the fingerprints of a new applicant, and the Department of Public Safety shall provide a criminal record check based upon the applicant’s fingerprints. The Board may request a criminal record check from the Department of Public Safety for a renewal applicant based upon the applicant’s fingerprints in accordance with policy adopted by the Board. The Board shall provide any additional information required by the Department of Public Safety and a form signed by the applicant consenting to the check of the criminal record and to the use of the fingerprints and other identifying information required by the State or national repositories. The applicant’s fingerprints shall be forwarded to the State Bureau of Investigation for a search of the State’s criminal history record file, and the State Bureau of Investigation shall forward a set of the fingerprints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a national criminal history check. The Department of Public Safety may charge each applicant a fee for conducting the checks of criminal history records authorized by this subsection.

The Board may require a new or renewal applicant to obtain a criminal record report from one or more reporting services designated by the Board to provide criminal record reports. Applicants are required to pay the designated reporting service for the cost of these reports.

(b) Confidentiality. – The Board shall keep all information obtained pursuant to this section confidential in accordance with applicable State law and federal guidelines, and the information shall not be a public record under Chapter 132 of the N.C. Gen. Stat.. (2009-328, s. 4; 2014-100, s. 17.1(o).)