Criminal History Reports and Pre-Employment Screening

Criminal court record reports show you the existence of cases brought by the people against an individual for acts against the laws of our society. About 5% of the individuals we check have a criminal record. For some positions the incidence is much higher. An affiliate in the DC area who screens thousands of applicants for part time work in the office building cleaning business for example finds a criminal past in 60% of the applicants! These are people who will get keys and unsupervised access to buildings containing assets worth millions of dollars.

County Criminal Court Record Reports

There are more than 3000 counties in the United States. Access to records is relatively fast and no releases are required. This is usually the best place to start your search. Cases held at the county level include misdemeanors and felonies, not reported at the federal level. These records usually must be searched for and pulled manually by a person known as a court record retriever. These requests take 72 hours.

Statewide Criminal Record Reports

Statewide criminal court record reports are available from more than half of the states. State repositories include abbreviated conviction and/or arrest information from state and most county agencies. County criminal records do not necessarily get reported at the state level. A state-specific release form may be required. At our discretion in states that do not have central repositories, where a release is not available, or where the retrieval time is too long, we will check every Federal district in the state and/or check multiple counties within the state of residence. We also check the state's department of corrections which is often the best place to find a record on someone.

Federal Criminal Court Record Reports

There are 94 Federal District Courts. Each state has one to four Federal District Courts contained within its borders. Most records held at the federal level are not available at the county or state levels. The primary actions held at this level involve drug crimes, immigration, fraud, and weapons charges. We can access these records and get them to you in 24 hours. There is only one good source of compiled records at the National level, the NCIC. NCIC (National Crime Information Center) reports can only be performed by the FBI, or legitimate law enforcement officials. See the article below on the NCIC.

No public records provider has access to NCIC, but an individual can obtain copies of what they have on himself. Public records access is available to the data found in the district repositories. It is also misleading to assume that a Federal Criminal Records search will produce information found at the county level.

Driving Records - Motor Vehicle Records (MVR's)

These records are fast, accurate, and very revealing of an individuals character. A high correlation exists between a poor driving history and other crimes. A clean driving record is a good sign, but a record filled with suspensions, failures to appear, or DUI can spell real trouble. Recent Federal law requires an applicant's consent to obtain driving records. State law however supercedes Federal law in this case, so that you may legally procure driving records in States where it is permissible without consent, however our policy requires a consent form be obtained.

Each court level is responsible for various crimes. For this reason, crimes held at the county level may not be recorded at the federal or state level. In order to gain a complete picture of an applicant's criminal history, a combination of county, state, and federal reports should be used in the verification process. However, if budget is a consideration, the county level search is the most productive, though it takes the longest to obtain. If speed is your concern, then request Federal, State, and DMV records. Tax liens, bankruptcy files, and sex offender databases can also be obtained in 24 hours.

FBI turns on new crime-fighting system

JULY 15, 1999 . . . 18:05 EDT

ARTICLE BY L. SCOTT TILLETT of Federal Computer Week

FBI officials announced today that they have successfully rolled out a massive new computer system that state and local law enforcement officials will use to fight crime.

The new system, the National Crime Information Center 2000 -- like the original NCIC, which the FBI had used since 1967 -- allows crime fighters to search through 17 databases when investigating crimes or questioning criminal suspects. The databases include information on stolen guns, deported felons, missing persons and stolen vehicles, for example.

NCIC 2000 will allow law enforcement officials with special hardware and software to transmit suspects' fingerprints to confirm their identity and to see if the suspects are wanted for other crimes. It also will allow the officials to view mug shots to confirm identities -- a capability the original NCIC did not have.

Law enforcement officers also can use NCIC 2000 to identify relationships among information in the databases. For example, under the old NCIC, if someone stole a car and a gun as part of the same crime and if a law enforcement officer later stopped the car thief on the highway, the officer could use the system to find out easily that the car had been stolen. But he would not necessarily know that the car thief might also have a stolen gun. NCIC 2000 shows the connection, keeping related information on a crime linked together, FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer said.

The new NCIC 2000 also adds name-search functionality. For example, a search for the name "James" would return alternate spellings, such as "Jim" or "Jimmy," Fischer said.

NCIC 2000 went online after years of escalating costs and congressional finger-wagging. System architects originally envisioned NCIC 2000 costing about $80 million, but the final price was $183.2 million, Fischer said. The discrepancy between the original cost and the actual cost came in part because contractors originally were "overly ambitious" when estimating the project, Fischer said.

NCIC 2000 went live on July 11, but bugs in the system, as well as FBI attention on the capture of suspected railroad killer Angel Maturino Resendez, delayed the unveiling of the system, Fischer said. He added that bugs in NCIC 2000 were fixed by Monday evening. The bugs related to connectivity with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which is used for approving gun purchases. That system draws on NCIC 2000 and other databases to approve or disapprove gun purchases.

FBI officials will hold the formal ceremony unveiling NCIC 2000 next month in Clarksburg, W.Va.