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Do Sealed Criminal Records Appear in a Background Investigation?

Recently, we have been working with two business owners regarding what they believed were sealed or expunged criminal records.

These cases had very different outcomes.

In the first scenario, a financial institution scrutinized a business owner when he applied for a significant loan. A background check was conducted as part of the evaluation process, and it revealed a felony record for dealing in stolen goods. The business owner, believing that his record had been expunged, was taken aback by this revelation and questioned the result.

In the second case, a man was selling his business and was subject to a background check as part of that process. The businessman believed that an old criminal case from his college days had been sealed, but he wanted to double-check. The client ran a TruthFinder search on himself and didn’t find the record. This was not terribly surprising, given our previous testing of TruthFinder. Not only did we find the criminal record, but we also found a second criminal case against him that he had completely forgotten about. Neither of the cases were sealed, and both were open to the public.

Neither of these situations was as straightforward as they seemed.

In the first scenario, the business owner had gone through the entire process of sealing and removing his record from the public realm. So, if anyone ever went to the court and searched the official records, the result would come back with no records.

However, we found the record in numerous investigative databases, and it turns out that the financial institution had also found the record in one of those databases. There is a dirty little secret in the world of public records: many of these local jurisdictions sell these records to various database aggregators, so once they are out in the wild, so to speak, it’s difficult to rein them back in. So, in this case, the record had been sealed many years after it was filed, so while it was removed from the official records, the record remained in the reports that could be obtained from dozens (if not hundreds) of various database providers that maintain these records.

The client is now going through the resource-intensive process of removing the record from these various database providers.

In the second scenario, the client was adamant that the case he was aware of was sealed. After all, he didn’t find it on TruthFinder. But as we have found before, TruthFinder’s criminal record repository can give you a false sense of security. So we dug our heels in, thinking that we were going to have to get creative about finding any record of the case, like by contacting the police or checking old police blotters.

So we were surprised when it came up in a few databases and even more surprised when a second case came up. The court where the offense took place also confirmed the records and sent us copies of the cases. Both of the cases were really old and, frankly, not particularly meaningful given that the client hadn’t been in any trouble for 20+ years, save for a few minor run-ins with the police in college. Nevertheless, they were pretty serious offenses, and their discovery could jeopardize the entire deal.

What are the takeaways from these two scenarios?

  • If you are a businessperson and subject to potential scrutiny, you should conduct your own due diligence to ensure that any purportedly sealed or expunged records are not out there. Don’t just assume that nobody will be able to find these records once they’re sealed. Nothing could potentially kill a deal faster than lying on a background investigation questionnaire.
  • Even in cases where a record is officially sealed with the court, it may exist in perpetuity in various other investigative databases because many counties and courts sell their information to third parties. Removing the records from the various databases is relatively straightforward, but it’s a time-consuming process. Intel Techniques’ Data Removal Guide is a good place to start.
  • For any motivated party, there are still many other ways to find criminal offenses, including calls for service records through local law enforcement.
  • The various online database “background check” providers can give you a false sense of security. If you’re seeking an affordable method to uncover some personal but incomplete information, TruthFinder might be a viable option. However, if your goal is to obtain reliable and comprehensive information more than half the time from reputable sources, it may be better to consult a professional.

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The 8 Biggest Mistakes in the George Santos Background Investigation

The George Santos fiasco provides a glimpse into the biggest background investigation failure I have ever seen. It was a failure on so many levels, but from the prospective of someone who does a lot of this kind of work, the “background investigation” conducted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) had some huge mistakes.

For those who haven’t been following closely, back in November 2022, the members of his district on Long Island, New York elected George Santos to serve in Congress. He ran as a “seasoned Wall Street financier and investor,” as a graduate of Baruch College and NYU with a stellar GPA, and as someone who had worked for the likes of Goldman Sachs and Citigroup and owned a real estate portfolio of 13 properties worth millions of dollars.

After his election, it was revealed that he lied about:

He also has a criminal history, has used multiple aliases and even lied about HIS MOTHER’S DEATH! Who does that?

There have been reports that some people in his own party knew about some of this before he was elected, which is mind-boggling.

For now, I will focus on the background investigation conducted by the DCCC, which published an 87-page “research memo” (or “research book”). It’s a bit of semantics, but I will call this a background investigation. In political lingo, this is called opposition research (or oppo research), which is the practice of collecting anything and everything that may destroy the opponent’s campaign.

Before I get into the issues with the DCCC report, a few positives:

  • The author did an amazing job of sourcing the information. There are links to tweets, articles and even screenshots from databases showing political contributions. Personally, I am a big fan of sourcing the work.
  • It’s clear that they scoured news media and social media—like every single tweet and Facebook post. Doing this is time-consuming and resource intense, and so these searches are often skipped over because of that.
  • I also appreciate the fact that they put in a caveat that “this is preliminary research, and further research will be necessary on George Santos.” As someone who does this work for a living, there are always limitations, and it’s important to note it (although they could have done a better job of making that more prominent).

So, here are the biggest mistakes that came out of the 87-page background investigation of George Santos:

1)  Failure to Act

Background investigations don’t exist in a vacuum; one needs to act on the information for them to have any value.

To whoever wrote this report: I feel for you. I too have worked on cases where there was a clear need to dig further or act on the information provided. But, despite our best efforts, the people in control must make the decision to act.  

2)  Too Much Information

The average reader would have needed 3.5 hours to read the 26,000-word, 87-page report. 

87. Pages. Is. Too. Long.

[END]

3)  Long-Winded “Significant Findings” Summary

The 87-page report contains an 10-page executive summary, which included that “Santos’s website had an issues page as of January 2021, but it was later taken down” and “Santos filed a Personal Financial Disclosure covering calendar year 2020.”

An executive summary should be a snapshot of the information, with the critical points clearly laid out concisely. Whoever reads this can get a pretty good idea of what they are about without spending 3.5 hours reading the whole thing.

Not 10 pages of mostly insignificant findings.

Get. To. The. Point.

10-Pages of “Significant Findings”

4)  Lack of Analysis

Put the pieces together. There was a lot of cutting and pasting of significant portions of news articles, but there was a lack of actual analysis.

For example, the facts that Santos had multiple evictions for a few thousand dollars and unpaid credit card bills for a few thousand dollars are not particularly earth-shattering.

But when you couple them with the fact that he claimed to be running his family firm with more than $80 million in assets, and he ran on a platform as a “seasoned Wall Street financier and investor,” that adds a little weight to the evictions and unpaid credit card bills. 

5)  Reliance on Personal Statements

I see this often. A person makes a personal statement about his or her own work history, education history or fantastic accomplishment, and it’s repeated as a fact.

One of my favorite examples of this was the fraudster Mouli Cohen, a self-described billionaire who claimed that President George H.W. Bush granted him “Millionaire Residency” status, the first such honor ever bestowed.

It was repeated everywhere, but it was total nonsense.

Repetition makes lies sound true.

6)  Lack of Depth

The report indicated that Santos’ education included an undergraduate degree from Baruch and an MBA from NYU.

Page 12 of the DCCC Research Memo

Santos earned neither.

Degree verification typically requires a signed release, which the DCCC didn’t have, so it’s hard to argue that they should have caught this. But don’t just regurgitate what Santos has said in public statements.

If someone was paying attention, however, he or she would have noticed that in some places Santos indicated earning a degree from Baruch, while in other places he said he earned degrees from both Baruch and NYU.

It should have been a sign to dig further or at least raised a yellow flag. 

7)  Thin Public Records Searches

The report did well referencing sources and links, even in the public record database area. But they were too reliant on commercial databases and didn’t go directly to the sources.

The public record research was really thin, and where they really messed up was the criminal record section.

From the report:

“Santos appeared to have no criminal record.

NOTE: Further research [is] necessary to determine whether Santos has a criminal record.”

Page 82 of the DCCC Research Memo

Wait, what?

Where did they search? Did they search the fictional nationwide criminal database? And which is it? Does he have a record? Or is “further research” necessary?

I’ve talked about this endlessly before. Criminal records are misunderstood, so it’s best to be pretty specific about what was searched. Because it might bite you in the a$$.

Oh yeah, he did have a criminal record — in Brazil. Which I am guessing wasn’t part of their mythical criminal database.

8)  Understand the Scope

Santos ran on a platform as a “seasoned Wall Street financier and investor” who had worked for the likes of Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, and he reportedly ran his “family’s firm” that managed $80 million in assets, including multiple properties.

None of that is true.

If the whole reason he is there is because of this, one would think that this is something that you would want to check the veracity of.

But they never bothered to check regulatory records to see if he worked at Goldman Sachs or Citigroup, and they never bothered to check whether the “$80 million” family firm had any public-facing assets. If they did, there would have been some more yellow flags.

Avoiding Mistakes in the Future

This might be the last “George Santos” we see for a while in terms of pulling the wool over people’s eyes in such a public way.

But don’t be fooled; charlatans like George Santos are everywhere.

And this fiasco could have been easily avoided with a more intentional approach to the background investigation.

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9 Mistakes Private Investigators Make When Doing Background Investigations

Recently, I was having a discussion with a fellow private investigator about a background investigation report that was produced by another private investigation firm. The report has some glaring holes and a lack of depth, and the vast majority of the report was a cut-and-paste job from various investigative databases.

Some of these so-called holes and what I consider big issues may have an explanation, but the background investigation report was on THE key witness in a case with major implications and a lot of money at stake. I understand that there are times when you need to cut some corners, but this was not one of them.

This happens quite often in our line of business. I’ve seen private investigators send a $15 “comprehensive report” from the investigative database provider TLOxp (owned by Transunion) to an attorney, charge them $500, and call it a background investigation.

Note to anyone who does that: attorneys can get access to TLO too.

I am here to tell you that sending a comprehensive database report to an attorney and charging them multiple times what the report actually costs is not a background investigation. It’s doing no service to anyone.

Raw data + zero analysis = no value-add.

So, here are what I see as some glaring holes in background investigations.

1) Relying on Databases With Limited Access

Background investigations rely on both public and private databases for information. These databases get information from a variety of public data (e.g., criminal records, property records, voter registration records) as well as private data (e.g., phone information, credit header information). But a database is only as good as the information contained in the database itself.

So, for example, each database has its own set of phone information, driver’s license records and criminal records, some of which are more complete than others.

But NONE of them covers everything. ALL criminal record databases have major holes; even the FBI’s national criminal database (NCIC) has some huge holes.

2) Failing to Note the Limitations

Digging deep into someone’s background takes time and effort. Sometimes clients just don’t want to pay for that time and effort, which is understandable. A client may not want to spend thousands of dollars in order to learn “everything” about someone.

If you need to go back only five or 10 years in criminal history searches because you didn’t have the budget to do criminal history searches in 14 jurisdictions, say that in your report.

If you were only looking for derogatory or controversial social media posts because you didn’t have the time to analyze 82,000 tweets, say that. 

Just please don’t say, “We searched his criminal history and found nothing.”

Because that literally means nothing.

3) Not Multisourcing

As stated earlier, databases are only as good as the information that they contain. Each database provider offers different sources of information. Some are good for some things, while others are better than others. Any good background investigation will search multiple sources of information even if they overlap. For example, PACER is a great tool for federal, civil, criminal and bankruptcy cases. But its search capabilities are absolutely archaic. And PACER will only search for plaintiffs and defendants. That’s it.

Free services like RECAP or paid services like Bloomberg Law, Westlaw and Lexis Nexis allow you to use more advanced searches to find name variations and also includes searches of the docket sheets, which can show you if someone has filed an affidavit, testified or been a witness in a case. And the paid services allow you to search the actual court filings, so you may be able to find a hidden gem of when someone was involved in a case but not named as a party.

4) Cutting and Pasting

Just the other day, a new client reached out looking for some information on her daughter’s ex-husband. The potential client told me that the last investigator had been a waste of money because that investigator had “merely cut and pasted information from PACER.”

In the age of the internet, potential clients are smart and savvy.

Don’t cut and paste information from sources that can be easily found via a few Google searches.

Leave the cutting and pasting for the kids.

5) Not Vetting Information Through Reliable Sources

I’ve spent a good portion of this post talking about investigative databases. The ones private investigators use include TracersInfo, TLOxp, DelvePoint, IDI and Accurint. In vetting other public records and news sources, sites like Westlaw, Factiva, ProQuest, LexisNexis and Bloomberg Law are extraordinarily valuable as well.

All these services have their benefits, but the one limitation that they all have is that they rely on information from elsewhere. So, for example, one of these services may report some criminal history, but in order to rely on the information, getting the information from the actual source or local court is critical. Databases get information wrong, so vetting the information from the original source is critical. 

And before you ask, all of these databases have their benefits, but none of them is the “best.”

6) Lacking Analysis

I often see background investigation reports regurgitating database information with a lack of analysis. The prime example of that would be bankruptcy and litigation records. It’s obviously useful to know that a bankruptcy is filed, but an analysis of the bankruptcy petition, which lists assets, loans, income, retirement, children, corporation interests and other valuable information would be a bit more telling. Did the person have hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit card debt? Or did they get laid off and fall on hard times?

Litigation documents can be telling as well. Do the records suggest that it’s more of a course-of-business collection case, or is there some deeper issue of abuse, threats or harassment?

Similarly, knowing that a criminal case exists is one thing, but knowing the intimate details of the filings is another.

All of this adds some contextual information, not just a data dump.

7) Including Opinions

I read a background investigation report produced where the investigator wrote that they were “very moved by his social media presence,” he appeared to be an “encourager and uplifter,” and it was “evident by his presence that he had worked very hard to reform his life and become a shining example for men like him.”

I’m not making this up.

There are so many things wrong with this I don’t know where to even start.

But, clearly, this investigator never watched “Dragnet.”

Just. The. Facts.

8) Not Researching Name Variations

One of the first steps I teach investigators is to confirm a person’s name. Seems silly, but it’s a critical piece.

Why? Well did you know that the actor John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison? Or that Michael Keaton is really Michael John Douglas? Or Brad Pitt is William Bradley Pitt?

Researching records on these guys would be a nightmare. Think of all the name variations that you would need to conduct searches under. Remember, computers aren’t smart enough to know that Brad Pitt and William Pitt are the same person. For example, most court records or official documents would include the real full name, while references in other places might include their stage name.

There are also married names to contend with. Like actress Jada Pinkett Smith, wife of Will Smith. She might have records under Jada Pinkett, Jada Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith or Jada Pinkett-Smith.

Conducting a background investigation under name variations is critical to providing a complete, accurate background investigation.

9) Lacking Clarity

Last, but not least, the biggest mistake I see is that a private investigator lacks the clarity of what the client is looking for.

A few months ago, I was speaking with an attorney who wanted to find “anything and everything” on several individuals involved in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. When it came down to it, however, the client was convinced these guys were lifelong fraudsters and was really only trying to see whether they had any significant issues in their past to confirm suspicions.

Those are two very different things.

So, does your client want to make sure that the person is not a convicted felon, wanted by the FBI and on the terrorist watch list?

Is the client on a dirt-digging exercise to find “anything” that may impugn a person’s character?

Are you trying to find holes in a person’s history to challenge their credibility?

Or are you working for an investment firm that just wants to check a box to make sure that the person is legitimate?

Each of these requires a whole different approach.

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What Types of Criminal Records Are Available through Public Records?

In the United States, criminal records are considered public record. In general, most, if not all, criminal records are available through public records, but there are a few caveats to this that are described in more detail below.

Types of Criminal Records Available through Public Records

  • Felony – A felony is the most serious class of offense throughout the United States.
  • Misdemeanor – A misdemeanor is a criminal offense that is less serious than a felony and more serious than an infraction.
  • Infraction – An infraction is a violation of an administrative regulation, an ordinance, a municipal code, and, in some jurisdictions, a state or local traffic rule.
  • Arrest record – An arrest record is the recorded documentation illustrating an individual’s criminal history in the event that the individual has been charged, but not necessarily convicted, of a crime.

Types of Records Not Available through Public Records

  • Records relating to criminal activity for anyone under the age of 18 (due to privacy laws related to minors)
  • Records that have been expunged, sealed, or otherwise cleared by the court

Access to Criminal Records through Public Records

Access to criminal records varies by state. For example, in some counties felony and misdemeanor records are maintained in a combined index, while in others felonies and misdemeanor records must be checked separately. In other states, infractions may be handled at local town courts.

In New York, for example, criminal records can be filed in the Supreme Court, District Court, Criminal Courts of the City of New York, or town, city or village courts, depending on the level of offense.

Arrest records, on the other hand, are typically held with law enforcement agencies and can also be included with court filings if formal charges are filed. The key distinction here is that individuals can be arrested, but not formally charged with a criminal offense. In this case, the local law enforcement agency may be the only place to access the record.

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The Mythical National Criminal Records Check

There is no such thing as a national criminal records check (at least not available to the public). It’s a myth spread by numerous investigative firms, investigative databases, and commercial public record vendors.

Even in this digital age, instant access to digitized criminal records is not available, and in many cases old-fashioned “boots on the ground” techniques must be relied upon to do a proper criminal check.

While there are many firms and databases advertising that they provide a national criminal records check, it’s at the very least misleading, and at worst, completely false advertising. (In Depth: Why Online Background Check Services Fail.)

Why Can’t You Conduct a National Criminal Records Check?

There are literally thousands of separate criminal indexes maintained at the county, parish, township, and city levels throughout the United States. A true national criminal records check would require access to each individual index. The truth of the matter is that there is no central way to search the thousands of criminal indexes. So unless you want to go through the time and expense of searching every county, parish, township, and city criminal index, the mythical national criminal records check is still a myth.

The only true national criminal records check database is with the NCIC – the National Crime Information Center – but this database is NOT accessible to the general public and is only available to criminal justice agencies.

Statewide Criminal Check

There are a number of states where you can search statewide criminal records. Among the states that offer statewide criminal record checks are New York, Connecticut, Michigan, Colorado, and Florida. These state criminal indexes receive data from each state’s counties, parishes, townships, and cities. However, some states do not provide a complete history of felonies and misdemeanors, so read the fine print.

For example, the State Police of Michigan provides records of felonies and “serious misdemeanors that are punishable by over 93 days,” which only covers a portion of the criminal cases filed.

County Criminal Check

A more thorough approach is to search the county-level criminal records where the person has lived, as well as the statewide criminal records. Be aware that in some counties felony and misdemeanor records are maintained in a combined index, while in others felonies and misdemeanor records must be checked separately.

Federal Criminal Records

Most U.S. District Court federal criminal records are accessible through PACER, the online federal court docket system. Note that not all federal criminal records have been digitized or go back as far as you need. Based on our own experiences, PACER has been known to miss some things, so it is wise to use a secondary source to search federal criminal records, such as Courtlink, Lexis Nexis, or Westlaw.

Final Thought

The mythical national criminal records check remains a myth, but with some proper techniques you can confidently conduct a true criminal check.

Other Reading:

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How To Look Up Criminal Records

Understanding how to look up criminal records is not as simple as one would think, but we’ve broken it down into a couple of simple steps.

Keep in mind here that there are lots of “free” or “cheap” criminal record databases out there, but has we have pointed out in the past online background check services are not what you think. They miss critical issues.  So if you are looking for “free” or “cheap” criminal records to add a piece of paper to your file, you might want to look elsewhere.

But if you want to know how to dig deep and find criminal records the right way, you’ve come to the right place.

There are several critical pieces of information you need to know about the person you are going to look up criminal records on prior to commencing a search:

  • Full name and date of birth, preferably from an official source of identification. While this seems simplistic, it’s critical to have accurate information, as most criminal record searches must have an exact match of name and date of birth.
  • Addresses where the person has resided and/or worked. The addresses are critical, as you need to know which counties or states the person has resided in. This information can be obtained from investigative databases that have credit header information. If possible, you can simply ask the person where he or she has resided or have them fill out a form; however, if he or she is trying to hide something, the answers may not be completely truthful.

Here is how to to look up criminal records in a couple of simple steps:

1Search the local court jurisdictions

The single most important thing that you need to do is to determine which county the person is residing in so that you can search the local court in that state. Be wary though, as most counties have separate courts for serious criminal offenses and for more minor offenses, and “minor offenses” in some states consist of up to six months in jail.

Some counties have put the information online, but many jurisdictions have not. In cases where you can’t get the information online, you can hire a court retriever in the local jurisdiction to search the records (check out BRB’s public retriever network) or call the court directly (sometimes they will help you over the phone).

2Search the state criminal record repository

Many states have a central criminal record repository where criminal records from the state’s various jurisdictions are aggregated in a state agency database. For example, you look up criminal records on someone through the New Jersey State Police, although there are restrictions on who can run the search. (New Jersey-licensed private investigators can.)

Although it’s convenient to search an entire state in one shot, there have been many stories of inaccurate information in these databases, so be wary of using this as a primary source of information.

3Search federal criminal records

Most people think of criminal records – including those for drug possession, driving while intoxicated, or assault and battery – as state matters. However, there are a number of federal statutes that can result in someone facing criminal charges, especially with white-collar matters.

The simplest way to look up federal criminal records is to search Pacer, a federal repository for all federal lawsuits. There are many other databases – including Courtlink – that can search federal criminal cases. It’s always a good idea to use multiple sources for each search, as one database may have information that another does not.

4Search nationwide repositories

As we have discussed in previous posts, it’s not wise to rely on nationwide criminal background check repositories as a sole source of information. However, they can come in handy when you are trying to find criminal records in a jurisdiction where the person may have been arrested that is outside the ones you are searching.

The one we recommend is SearchSystems.net, which reportedly has more than 400 million records. What we like most about SearchSystems is the transparency of what is covered in the database, unlike most other databases you see.

Important Things to Consider

  • There is no one central repository for searching criminal records, despite claims to the contrary.
  • Always use multiple sources to look up criminal records, even if there is an overlap in coverage.
  • Read the fine print! Always know what information is contained in a database, government repository, or court computer – the information you get is only as good as what is contained in the results.
  • Always determine the dates that are covered in whatever you are searching. If the person you are looking into lived in a jurisdiction 15 years ago but the database covers only 10 years, you’ve got a problem.
  • If you find a serious issue, retrieve the documents to confirm that (a) the information matches the person you are investigating and (b) you get the facts about the case.
  • Going straight to the source (the court) is the best thing you can possibly do to conduct a criminal background check.

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Why a “Nationwide Criminal Background Check” is Complete BS!

Why, you may ask, is a “nationwide criminal background check” complete BS?  For one thing, there is no such thing.

Last week we highlighted some warnings about online background check services, and the gaping holes that these services have.

What most of these services offer, including the one we highlighted, is a “nationwide criminal background check” which has even more holes than a donut shop.

Now the facts…

There are over 3,000 counties in the United States, many of which have multiple courthouses which maintain criminal records. The procedures to access these records vary, most of which can’t be accessed through a central repository. Even so, many of these courts have not yet digitized records making them completely inaccessible online.

There is no official count as to how many criminal records (arrests and/or convictions) are accessible online, but it’s pretty minuscule and spread across to many different systems, courts and repositories that it will make you want to pull out your hair just thinking about it.

“True” Nationwide Criminal Background Check

As we have discussed previously, there is only one “true” nationwide criminal background check in the U.S. today. The N.C.I.C. (National Criminal Information Center), which is a central repository for criminal record information that is available only to registered law enforcement agencies and related criminal justice organizations which is not available to the public.

Even so, there have been questions about the reliability and accuracy of the NCIC database so even if you did have access to it, it may not be the most comprehensive way to find criminal records.

Further Reading

If you are serious about conducting a “nationwide criminal background check”, here are some helpful links:

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How to Conduct a Criminal Background Check Like an Expert

There are several things you should know about the person you are investigating before you conduct a criminal background check like an “expert”:

  1. Full name (preferably what appears on the person’s driver’s license or another government-issued document) including any nickname and maiden name
  2. Date of birth from an official source (e.g., driver’s license, passport, etc.)
  3. Addresses and/or counties where the person has resided (more on that later)
  4. A Social Security number (helpful, but not necessary)
For simplicity’s sake, we have broken the ways to conduct a criminal background check into four categories: online databases, “official” repositories, courthouses and other sources.

Online Databases

Online databases offer a quick and easy way to search millions of criminal records.  Investigators have access to professional databases, which offer a wider range of criminal records, but for the general public, there are hundreds of online service providers that respond to criminal record inquiries.

The one we recommend is SearchSystems.net, which reportedly has more than “400 million records.”  What we like most about the SearchSystems database is the transparency of identifying what is covered in the database, unlike most other databases you see.

If you use another service, be sure to read the fine print in the description of database coverage to know exactly what is included in the search and the dates that are covered.  For example, some database providers search only sex offender records, which can be performed for free through the Department of Justice website.

The benefits of using online databases are that they are quick, easy and relatively inexpensive.  However, they are not comprehensive, are filled with holes and inaccuracies, and should not be relied on exclusively.  There are numerous examples of an individual or business that opted to take the “short road” in terms of a background check provider and failed to uncover critical information.

“Official” Repositories

Official repositories include state and federal government repositories where you can access information directly through the source.  For example, through Pacer you can search federal criminal records.  Additionally many states offer ways to conduct a statewide criminal search through either the state court system, like the New York Office of Court Administration, where you can conduct a statewide criminal record search in New York, or, as in Connecticut, where you can make a request through the Department of Public Safety, Division of State Police.

The benefit, of course, is that you are using an official repository run by the state or federal government; however, these repositories are only as good as the information they contain.  In Texas, it was recently reported that one out of every four criminal records never made it to the Department of Public Safety Computerized Criminal History System, which is not terribly comforting.

We have also found numerous instances over the years of cases not appearing in Pacer but appearing in other investigative databases.  Also, it’s critical to understand that the person may have committed a crime across state lines, which can be found out the hard way.

Courthouses

Going straight to the source is the best thing you can possibly do to conduct a criminal background check.  You can be confident that the information is accurate; you can typically search further back in time; and if necessary, you can retrieve the documents from the case right on the spot to confirm with certainty that the case is related to the right person.

The issue with going to the courthouse directly is that it is relatively cost prohibitive, especially if the person has resided in multiple jurisdictions.  Also, if the person happened to commit a crime across a county line, it may not show up in the local courthouse.  The fact remains, there is no better way to conduct a criminal background check that to go straight to the court.

Other Sources

In addition to consulting the sources above, there are several other things you can do to find criminal records that may or may not have been identified in the above sources, including accessing the sex offender registry, state prison records and federal prison records.  Additionally, it’s a good idea to search local media publications or police blotters, as someone may have been charged with violating a local ordinance or pleaded down to a lesser charge that may not be found in the public record.

Key Takeaways

  • There is no one central repository for searching criminal records, despite claims to the contrary.
  • Always use multiple sources to conduct a criminal background check, even if there is an overlap in coverage.
  • Read the fine print!  Always know what information is contained in a database, government repository or court computer – the information you get is only as good as what is contained in the results.
  • Always determine the dates that are covered in whatever you are searching. If the person you are looking into lived in a jurisdiction 15 years ago, but the database only covers 10 years, you’ve got a problem.
  • If you find a serious issue, retrieve the documents to confirm that a) the information matches the person you are investigating and b) you get the facts about the case.
  • Going straight to the source (the court) is the best thing you can possibly do to conduct a criminal background check.

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