BOSTON — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey commissioned an independent review of security at state-run shelters and signaled an openness to residency requirements for the emergency assistance program after facing blowback for a lack of widespread criminal background checks in the system.

Democrats on Beacon Hill have long expressed a resistance to implementing residency requirements largely championed by legislative Republicans. But Healey’s willingness to consider the idea came after her administration confirmed It was not fully looking into the potential criminal histories of all state-run shelter residents.

Healey said Friday that the right-to-shelter law, a decades-old statute that created the state-run shelter program, should “align” with its original intent to house homeless pregnant women and families with children.

“You asked about duration requirements, I think that that’s important. I think that it’s something to consider as we move forward because I want, and this is a conversation to have with the Legislature, but the law aligning with the original intent and purposes of the law is important to me,” Healey said.

House and Senate Republicans repeatedly tried last year to push through a six and three month residency requirement for the emergency shelter program but were beaten back each time by Democrats who questioned whether such a policy was constitutional.

Healey also said she tapped former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis to perform an “independent, outside review” of security at state-run shelters with the goal of providing recommendations on additional steps that can be taken to boost safety.

The report, Healey said, is due within 30 days and will be made public. She did not say how much Davis would be paid for the job.

“I want him looking at this. I want him advising me directly about what else we can and should do to ensure that we’re doing all we can here in Massachusetts to protect people,” she said. “I want Ed Davis to have a full look at everything and to be able to report back to me in the very near term about what additional steps we should take and put in place across our EA system.”

The decision to seek an outside report came after the arrest of an illegal immigrant at a shelter site in Revere with an AR-15 and $1 million worth of fentanyl, the alleged rape of a migrant girl, the release of thousands of records of disturbing incidents inside the system, and as Healey is pursuing another round of funding for state-run shelters.

Healey said she asked state officials last spring to run background checks against the criminal offender record information database — also known as CORI — for all shelter residents in the emergency assistance program but was only “recently informed” that those were not happening.

The governor said she re-upped that order Friday.

“I’ve ordered CORI checks to be done on all shelter residents across all sites. Earlier this week, I ordered an inspection be conducted at all shelter sites. I want to report this afternoon that inspections of hotels are complete and we are moving through the rest of those sites,” the governor told reporters from inside the lobby of her State House office.

The Democrat had maintained for months that emergency shelter residents were fully vetted before entering the system, including in the wake of the alleged rape in Rockland when Healey said everyone provided shelter was “vetted.”

“We’re deploying all that we can in terms of vetting individuals,” the governor said at the time.

But in a statement to the Herald, a spokesman for the state’s housing agency said Healey was only now ordering name-based criminal record checks against the CORI database.

“Background checks have always been done for emergency assistance applicants. The governor has now ordered CORI checks to be done as well,” the spokesman, Noah Bombard, said Friday. “Warrant checks are conducted monthly while they are in emergency assistance.”

Republicans quickly slammed Healey for the lack of criminal background checks for all shelter residents, with one top House Republican suggesting it was time for “heads to roll.”

House Minority Leader Brad Jones said the “failure” to conduct criminal background checks is “completely unacceptable and represents a serious betrayal of the public’s trust.”

“The administration’s handling of the situation has been a total disaster, with the failure to carry out the most basic of public safety protocols needlessly placing other people in harm’s way by housing them alongside dangerous criminals,” the North Reading Republican said in a statement. “Whether it’s incompetence, intransigence or negligence, changes must be made. It’s time for heads to roll.”

Healey, who said criminal background checks were being performed for residents in overflow shelters, did not give a reason for why they were not conducted for everyone in the emergency assistance program despite her order last spring.

The governor said he administration would “get to the bottom of why that wasn’t happening.”

“CORI checks were being performed at those temporary respite centers, the overflow sites where the majority of new arrivals were going, and it was my understanding that they were being conducted system wide,” she said. “Mind you, CORI checks were not required by law or by statute. They’re not as we sit here today.”

Massachusetts Republican Party spokesman Logan Trupiano said Healey’s failure to manage her own administration is “glaringly obvious” and conducting CORI checks should have been the first step for overseeing intake at taxpayer-funded shelters.

“From the very beginning, the Healey administration’s handling of the migrant crisis has been nothing short of catastrophic. The policies and inaction of her administration, along with the Democratic supermajority, have plunged Massachusetts into a full-blown humanitarian crisis. The fact of the matter is the only way out of this crisis is through reform,” he said.

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