If you have been a victim it is important to let that be known now so we can get this taken care of before your situation worsens as they abandonship.The city has commited to an active role in persuing criminal and civil penalties against them.

Are there any resources out there that could provide some screening of these persons for things like criminal records,...etc?  

You can save money on the reports by doing the criminal check yourself; only takes 60 seconds.

Any thought on which of these criminal organizations....erp ...big banks are the least worst to deal with?

First, get rid of slow and non payers and criminals.

This limits my ability to see if they are employed, any information on prior rental history, criminal history etc.I planned to ask the owner to get them to sign a month to month and tell them that my intention is not to put them out after each month (which it isn't) but in case things go bad I do not want to endure it for a year.

Sorry but I need to run your credit and criminal history, so if you don't exist in the system I will just pass on you as a tenant.

Cops handle criminal issues. 

I use http://www.myrental.com/ for their nationwide criminal background and eviction checks as part of my screening process.

There are some non negotiables such as criminal backgrounds and evictions on record which we don’t accept.