Criminal record: investigation of the process of executing a criminal check
How often do you turn on the news, hoping to catch the weather report, only to hear yet another “real life crime” story? It seems that everywhere we look today, from the television to the newspaper to the radio; we are subject to these horror tales. Except, unlike a fascinating book that we can’t stop reading, these stories happen all around us. From global headlines to our own community, we are being victimized by criminals in every conceivable way.
We have all been well aware that we are living in dangerous times. Suspecting the worst in people until we know better is the norm in our world. Unfortunately, even the most cautious can get scammed by a scammer, trust an unfit babysitter to care for their children, or even hire a dishonest employee. One of the measures used to help protect against these types of crimes is a seemingly simple background search that focuses on an individual’s criminal record.
There are many reasons why someone would want to run a criminal record on another person; however, they all focus on one universal theme: safety. Protecting ourselves, our families, our businesses and our finances are our top concerns. Whether your company has regularly conducted a criminal background search or is just beginning this process, whether or not you have personally conducted such a search before; there is specific information you need to know.
So what is a criminal record and what exactly does it contain? In general, a criminal history record contains identifying information, arrest history, conviction history, incarceration information, and any other possible criminal facts about the individual in question. Anything from petty crimes and up could be found; however, there are a few things to clarify in the criminal record explanation. The breakdown is as follows:
Arrest records include various police records of arrests. Even this has a broad meaning: some will only report arrests that led to convictions, while others will report any and all arrests.
Criminal court records include criminal records from local, state, and federal courts.
Correctional records include prison records detailing periods of incarceration.
State Criminal Repository Records include State Records which are a compilation of arrest records, criminal court records, and correction records.
The biggest misconception, and many people hold to this belief, is that the United States has a national database that is a compilation of all criminal records everywhere, from the local level to the federal level. This is simply not true.
The closest thing the US has to a national criminal database is the Interstate Identification Index, or “Triple-I.”
This compilation is managed through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Triple-I will include criminal events such as: open warrants, arrests, stolen property, missing persons, and felony and misdemeanor dispositions (defined as any offense that could result in a year or more in jail). However, there are two things you need to understand about this database.
Only law enforcement personnel and agencies can access the Triple-I database. There is no nationwide criminal database available to the normal layman.
If a county, city, or state does not report a crime for entry into this database, it will not be found there. This means that many crimes that did not result in incarceration in a federal prison will not be found in Triple-I.
Law enforcement uses the Triple-I for a variety of reasons, from compiling a list of suspects for an unsolved crime to prosecuting an accused person. That’s great for them, but where does this leave the average American who needs to run a criminal record search? There are a few options, none of them are perfect on their own, but combined they can, and will, give a pretty accurate picture of the person you’re investigating, if done correctly. So how, or rather where, do you start?
Collect identifying information from the person you are investigating. You will need, at a minimum, their full name, any previous last names they may have had, and their date of birth. Be 100% sure that you have your name spelled correctly. If you only have your name, you’ll have to do a little digging to get at least your date of birth. Otherwise, you could end up with inaccurate criminal records that may not actually belong to the person in question.
Ideas for locating additional information:
Talk to neighbors, co-workers, family members, or even previous employers of the person in question.
Look for phone directories online, as they often have the middle name, or at least the middle initial, listed with the address and phone details.
Use other online sources to try to collect identifying information, such as your date of birth and other names possibly used.
If possible, just ask the person in question!
Obtain residential information on the person you are investigating. You will need to know where they lived for the past seven years. Cities and states at least, but again, the more comprehensive data you have, the better.
Ideas for locating previous addresses:
o Search for one of the many free services online, often every instance of the name that appears in their database will appear. This means that if the person in question has moved, every address associated with their name is likely to be in the database.
o If you know the previous cities and states of their residences; You can search old phone directories, criss-cross directories (also called city directories and home directories) at appropriate local libraries, and in some cases, online, to get complete addresses from when the person lived in that area.
o And again, if possible, you can always ask the person you are researching.
Use free online sources to locate criminal records. Once you know the identifying information and jurisdiction of the person you are investigating, you can find the appropriate county, city, and state sites to access their public records. Keep in mind that each state determines what is considered a “public” record, so you’ll need to review the laws of the places you’re researching.
Additionally, it is important to realize that only 25-35% of criminal data is available online, and this includes public data. So while it’s a great place to start, it can’t be the basis for a full criminal history investigation of your person. Keep in mind, too, that many of the records will be missing key identifying information, such as date of birth, middle names, and/or social security numbers.
Pay for an online investigation company to conduct a criminal check. Most, if not all, online investigative organizations use the National Criminal File (NCF) as the database they search. This file is also the most commonly searched database for pre-employment background checks.
As you may already know, this archive is not really national; however, most US states are included. Note, however, that almost all of the information that makes up the NCF comes solely from correction records. Thus, there are many potential holes for missing criminal activity, from county criminal records to state repositories. Anything that is considered a misdemeanor (a crime less serious than a felony) will probably not be included either. This means that you could receive a clean report on a person who, in fact, has a criminal record.
Another drawback of the Archivo Nacional Penal is the constant lack of identifying information, as with the online public registries mentioned above. It is rare to find social security numbers or dates of birth to verify that you definitely have the correct criminal record for your individual. The more common the name, the more unlikely it is that you will receive data that should not be confirmed.
There are very few names in our country that are unique enough for this not to be a problem. Remember this, as you will need to dig deeper once you have received the report NCF generated or the data you personally retrieved in your public criminal record search.
Deeper how? Go to the source of the report. That is, you will need to query the original data source that the build came from. You can request a manual search from a fee-based research company, or you can do it yourself. However, it is the only sure way to verify that the information you have is correct. This means that you will need to search for civil records in the correct jurisdictions and although you can do some of this online, as mentioned above; you may need to request the records in writing or go to the actual county that stores the data.
This is where you will be able to use the identifying information you collected. You can compare the person’s date of birth, social security number, full name, and full addresses at this point. By doing this, you can rule out the error probability inherent with a common name.
One last thing to mention. If you discover information that would lead you not to hire the person in question, you must comply with the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act). The FCRA requires that when you overlook someone because of a criminal history report, it is your right by law to see the report on which you based your decision. Be sure to follow this law or it could come back to haunt you in the form of a lawsuit.
Criminal background checks are an important facet of determining if a person has a history of criminal activity. As with anything, getting an accurate criminal report largely depends on what you put into it. With tenacity in acquiring full identifying information, conducting a fair and lawful search, confirming any criminal data you find; You will have an informative and accurate report at the end.
After all, the bottom line is that those you seek to protect (yourself, your family, your business) are safe from the criminal element.