Background Check Services for Employers
About DDS — Due Diligence Services
Employment background screening done right since 1979 — founder-led, source-direct, and built on a reputation for integrity that our clients have trusted for over four decades.
DDS — Due Diligence Services is a background screening company that has helped employers make informed, fact-based hiring decisions since 1979. We’re not a venture-funded startup or a faceless national data wholesaler. We’re a founder-led background screening company with the same leadership that started the firm more than 45 years ago, a proprietary network of trained researchers, and a standard of excellence that helped shape the screening industry itself.
Founder-Led Since 1979
Proprietary Researcher Network
Integrity, Honesty, Transparency
Our Story
DDS was founded in 1979 by Dan Stevens. At the time, standardized pre-employment polygraph testing was a common tool for employers evaluating candidates. Dan saw the natural next step: delivering fact-based, verifiable information to employers so they could make genuinely informed hiring decisions — not just a single test result, but a comprehensive, accurate picture of a candidate’s background. That insight became the foundation of the background screening company DDS is today.
More than four decades later, the mission hasn’t changed: help employers make confident, compliant hiring decisions based on facts they can trust.
The corporation has always operated as Daniel D. Stevens, Inc. Our doing-business-as name has evolved with the industry — from “Employee Screening Services” to “DDS” to today’s “DDS — Due Diligence Services.” Each evolution mirrored the regulatory changes and growing sophistication of the screening field. But we still answer the phone the same way we always have: with our branded DDS name, and a real person on the line — the kind of service that’s increasingly rare among background screening companies.
A History of Industry Firsts
DDS didn’t just participate in the background screening industry — we helped build it.
1979 — Founded. Dan Stevens launches the company, applying the principle of fact-based candidate evaluation to employment screening.
1985 — First computer-to-computer background screening. DDS deployed one of the industry’s first computer-to-computer background screening programs, allowing us to expand beyond a regional footprint and begin building a national network of trained researchers. This was years before the internet made data transfer routine.
2002–2003 — Co-architect of industry standards. Dan Stevens, along with a handful of affiliated business owners, began developing the framework for an association that would set best-practice standards for a rapidly growing industry. One year later, the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) was born. That organization has since grown from a national to an international body — today known as the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) — and remains the standard-bearer for the entire industry.
Co-developer of the ClearStar platform. Dan Stevens was also one of the architects behind the ClearStar technology platform, used industry-wide for the secure transfer of screening requests, delivery of reports, and regulatory-compliant storage of personal and private information.
Few firms in this industry can say they helped write its standards and build its core technology. DDS can — which is part of what distinguishes us from virtually every other background screening company operating today.
Leadership
DDS has been led by the same family since the day it was founded — a rare kind of continuity in an industry dominated by private equity rollups and revolving-door management.
Dan Stevens — Founder, CEO & President (1979–Present). Dan founded DDS in 1979 and continues to lead the company today. A recognized authority in both the background screening and polygraph industries, he was a co-architect of the NAPBS/PBSA industry standards and a co-developer of the ClearStar platform. He remains an invited speaker inside and outside the industry, sharing his experience and perspective on personal and business success.
Dorothy Stevens — Vice President (1979–Present). Dorothy has been part of the DDS leadership team since the company’s founding, providing more than four decades of continuity and institutional knowledge.
Michael Amato — Director of Operations and Compliance (2001–Present). Michael has led DDS operations and compliance for over two decades, overseeing the checkpoint process that governs every request, dispatch, review, and report.
Leadership measured in decades, not quarters — that continuity is a meaningful part of why clients choose DDS over any other background screening company for the long term.
How We Operate
The DDS operations hub is the checkpoint for every request — dispatch, review, compliance, and reporting all run through a single disciplined process. Nothing reaches a client without passing through it. This is where DDS operates differently from a typical background screening company.
What makes our operation different:
A proprietary researcher network. DDS operates its own network of trained researchers, providing strong coverage both nationally and internationally. Unlike a background screening company that simply resells a national wholesaler’s database, our people make the calls, pull the records, and verify the information directly at the source.
Proprietary training, initial and ongoing. Our research, compliance, and support teams are developed through a proprietary training program — both at onboarding and continuously throughout their tenure. The result is a research, compliance, and support operation we believe is second to none in the industry.
A compliance checkpoint on every report. Before any report reaches a client, it passes through compliance review — ensuring accuracy, removing information that shouldn’t be reported (expunged, sealed, juvenile records), and confirming that everything in the report can be used in a compliant hiring decision.
Four decades of doing this right.
The best way to understand the DDS difference is to talk to us. A free consultation will show you how a founder-led, source-direct screening partner operates — and why our clients stay with us for decades. No obligation, no charge.
Industry Standing and Recognition
Co-founder of the industry’s standards body. DDS played a leadership role in the founding of NAPBS — now the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA), the international standard-bearer for the background screening industry. In the years since, DDS has intentionally stepped back from association leadership to allow new leaders to emerge, while remaining an active, respected voice in the field.
A recognized industry expert. Founder Dan Stevens has been featured across various shows and events as an expert in both the background screening and polygraph industries, and continues to be an invited speaker on professional and business topics.
Technology accreditation through ClearStar. All of the technological accreditations and certifications governing DDS’s secure data handling — including the infrastructure for secure transfer, reporting, and regulatory storage of sensitive information — are achieved through the ClearStar platform that Dan Stevens helped architect.
Who We Serve
DDS prides itself on a highly diversified client base spanning a wide range of industries. Over more than four decades, we’ve built screening programs for employers across:
– Healthcare — hospitals, health systems, staffing agencies, and practices
– Law Enforcement — agencies with rigorous screening requirements
– Education — schools, districts, and educational institutions
– Manufacturing — including safety-sensitive and DOT-regulated roles
– Transportation — trucking and fleet operators under FMCSA regulation
– Retail — high-volume hiring environments
– Food Processing — regulated food-safety workforces
– Child Care Services — where thorough screening protects the most vulnerable
– Children’s Sports — volunteer and staff screening for youth programs
– Government Contractors — federal compliance screening
– Staffing — high-throughput placement screening
– Animal Rescue — volunteer and staff vetting
This diversity is a strength: it means DDS understands the specific compliance demands, turnaround needs, and risk profiles of many different industries — not just one. Few background screening companies can match that breadth of industry experience built over four decades.
Our Mission
The mission that drives DDS as a background screening company is simple and unchanged since 1979:
At DDS — Due Diligence Services, our mission is to empower organizations with comprehensive employment due diligence services, ensuring fair, compliant, and transparent hiring practices. We are committed to conducting thorough and comprehensive background checks, verifying credentials, and assessing candidate suitability with integrity and precision. By fostering trust and minimizing risks, we strive to support businesses in building strong, ethical workforces while upholding the highest standards of professionalism and confidentiality.
What Makes DDS Different
There are more than 200 PBSA-accredited firms in the market. Here’s what sets DDS apart from every other background screening company:
Reputation built on example. The reputation that precedes DDS comes from the standard of excellence we set for ourselves — integrity, honesty, transparency, instant human communication, and treating people with the respect they deserve. That culture is the foundation of the loyalty and trust our clients have placed in us for over four decades.
Real human communication. When you call DDS, a real person answers — and that person can actually help you. In an industry where many a background screening company now runs entirely through automated portals and offshore call centers, instant human communication is a deliberate, defining choice.
Founder-led continuity. The person who founded DDS in 1979 still leads it. That’s not a marketing line — it’s a structural fact that shapes how this background screening company operates, prioritizes clients, and maintains standards over the long term.
Why we do this. DDS exists because there’s a genuine need to help businesses grow by giving them confidence that every candidate they hire meets their standards as a contributor to continued growth and success. That’s the whole point of a background screening company done right: better information, better hiring decisions, stronger organizations.
Ready to Work With a Screening Partner You Can Trust?
Four decades of integrity, a founder who helped build the industry, and a proprietary researcher network that goes to the source — this is what a background screening company should be. A free consultation is the best way to see the difference. No obligation, no charge.