State Options

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• About those criminal records...

  A check of criminal records is standard procedure when due diligence research is conducted on an individual.  However, even in this age of instant access to digitized information, old fashioned investigative techniques usually must be relied upon for the accurate research of criminal background check records. There is no overall standard or federal law that determines how records of crimes (felonies or misdemeanors) are collected, indexed, searched or used.
  
  There is no substitute for a tightly focused county criminal court search conducted in the locations where the individual has lived. A county criminal background check should be requested in conjunction with a Social Security number verification, which identifies the counties that should be searched for criminal records. The net is smaller, but it is tightly woven and directed where the applicant has most likely left a record that needs to be investigated

• County Level Criminal Record Search

  Checking for criminal court records at the county level is the primary method used by HireSafe. The county courthouse is where the record originated, and therefore represents the logical and accurate starting point. The information is the most current available, which is a requirement of the Fair Credit Reporting Act for employment evaluation purposes. In some counties felony and misdemeanor records are maintained in a combined index, in others felonies and misdemeanor records must be checked separately. HireSafe maintains a nationwide network of court researchers to visit any courthouse in the United States and Territories for accurate records.

• Statewide Criminal Repository Search

  
  

  The state judicial system begins with the local county court. This is where criminal and civil cases are filed and adjudicated. The case will end there, move on to a higher state court or find its’ way to the Supreme Court of the United States.

  It is possible to conduct a statewide search for criminal records in 38 states. The statewide criminal indexes receive their data from the counties, so if a county fails to report criminal data to the state, the statewide index may not be complete. Statewide criminal record repositories vary in detail within the scope of information that is available and are not always the most accurate source. From a practical perspective, a county level check may be a better option even though a particular state may have a publicly available statewide index, as it may take weeks to receive the information.

   The Statewide Criminal Repository Search is not available from: AR, CA, DC, LA, MS, NE, NH, NV, OH, VT, WI, WV and WY. For these states the individual county court search is the only option for record retrieval. The sheer largess of the state court system (over 3,600 jurisdictions) illustrates the impossibility of a true and accurate “national criminal record search.”

• The Instant National Criminal Profile Report

  
  

  There are thousands of separate criminal indexes maintained at the county, parish, township, and city levels throughout the United States, so to conduct a nationwide search would require accessing each individual state index.  Recently, proprietary databases have been created to access that information in its’ raw format. This instant report pulls millions of records from all fifty states and US Territories in varying levels based upon each state’s procedures. Reporting data available may reflect arrest information obtained by police departments, county cases forwarded from local courts, or other criminal reporting agencies by the state in addition to the Sex Offender Registry. Not all counties in all states report all of their records so the instant National Criminal Profile Report does not represent a complete criminal history for an applicant.

  Because of the very nature of these databases they are NOT compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) as a primary tool for hiring decisions. They also seldom contain a date-of-birth, making the records found “name-match-only.” The important role these database searches do play is as an “indicator” for searching for criminal records beyond the address of record of the applicant.
  
  There is another serious problem with the all database criminal records --the data is “stale.” Typically these databases are updated only every six months, or even less frequently. For this and other reasons, the instant National Criminal Profile Report alone is not compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) for employment evaluation purposes. HireSafe offers the National Profile Report with the understanding that it is to be used only with a FCRA-compliant search or as a tool to throw out a geographically "wider net" than a county criminal check would provide.

  For compliance with the FCRA, any records (hit’s) found within these database searches must first be cross-checked with an onsite county courthouse record search prior to taking adverse hiring action. When common names are involved, this could be time consuming and expensive. The employer is legally responsible for compliance with the FCRA and state laws, and fines can be heavy.
  
  The instant National Criminal Profile Report does comply with FCRA when used simply as a prescreening locating tool to "generate leads" and when records found are verified in their local county courthouse for accuracy. There are NO commercial database searches that contain sufficient information for primary employment or tenant suitability decisions under the FCRA.