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 NexisT, 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 NexisT 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 NexisT 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
