Efforts by the Department of Human Services (DHS) to achieve positive outcomes for Oregonians are, in part, strengthened by the thousands of background checks it conducts each year. In addition, the 2007 Oregon Legislature has authorized DHS to use abuse information to screen applicants. Because of the addition of abuse checks, the DHS Criminal Records Unit (CRU) changed its name to the DHS Background Check Unit (BCU), effective 4/1/2009.