How Thorough is a National Criminal Records Check

How thorough is a "National Criminal Records Check"?

by Nic Smith

You can find it everywhere on the Internet… " Complete national criminal records search for only $29.95." It Sounds too good to be true, right?

It is.

The common saying that "the devil is in the details" is especially true here. Lexis Nexis™, for example, one of the best databases available, has a public records search capability. If you click on Civil and Criminal Court filings and then select "Combined State Criminal Records", do you know how many states you will actually be researching? Only eleven, and many of those have only partial coverage. In Texas, for example, only two of the 248 counties are covered and those are Bexar County, which includes San Antonio and Denton County that includes only part of Dallas!! In California, Lexis Nexis™ coverage extends to only 17 of the 54 counties.See the list below.

If you are the human resources director for a company, law firm, health care or educational institution, responsible for making critical hiring choices, would you want to rely on a database like the one just described to "check their criminal history?" Of course not.

And if you are hiring someone such as a teacher, security guard or pharmacist, etc., who is required to submit their fingerprints to be checked against the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), the largest biometric database in the world, how complete is that check? Currently, IAFIS has more than 47 million submissions in its repository. These are criminal submissions from arrests and civil submissions from authorized background checks. Notice the word "submission?" This system relies upon voluntary uploading of information from the various law enforcement agencies thorough out the United States. Is there a100% participation in submitting records? The answer is, no, for myriad reasons

So what options do you have? You could:

Continue to use cheap Internet searches and pretend that that's enough
Hire professional researchers and investigators who have a complete working knowledge of all the pitfalls and inaccuracies of the various databases, and who know where to go to find the information you need.

If you do decide to use professional investigators for background checks (both pre-employment and other checks) as well as for due diligence, choose Parrent Smith Investigations and Research. With us, you know you will be getting a thorough public records search, not just a cursory one.

California, Lexis Nexis™ coverage:

Los Angeles County Superior Court Case Index
Los Angeles Municipal Court misdemeanors
Ventura County Municipal Court Criminal Case Index
Contra Costa County Superior and Municipal Court case index
Orange County Superior Court Criminal Case Index
San Luis Obispo County Superior Court Criminal Case Index
Santa Barbara County Superior Criminal Case Index
Santa Barbara County Superior Criminal Case Index
Alameda County Superior Court Criminal Case Index
Butte County Superior Court Criminal Case Index
Fresno County Superior Court Criminal Case Index
San Bernardino Superior Court Criminal Case Index
Santa Cruz County Superior Court Criminal Case Index
Sacramento County Superior Court Criminal Case Index
San Diego County Superior Court Criminal Case Index
San Mateo County Superior Court Criminal Case Index
Santa Clara County Superior Court Criminal Case Index
Marin County Superior Court Criminal Case Index
Riverside County Superior Court Criminal Case Index