Public Criminal Records

According to public records researchers, no more than 20% of public criminal records are available online. This is perhaps due to the fact that not all states have online databases containing public criminal records. In fact, only 22 states have registries for public criminal records and not all are as comprehensive as you would like them to be. The only truly comprehensive public criminal records database is the FBI database and that is not considered public record. Only those from criminal justice agencies have the legal right to access those documents.

So how does one go about finding public criminal records? Well, if you’re a business and you absolutely must get access to the public criminal records of individuals that you are considering hiring, then the best solution for you would be to contact a private detective agency. You see, even if online access of data is not comprehensive, a manual retrieval of public criminal records is quite possible and not only that, it is in fact an integral part of public records research.

How Important is Public Criminal Records Research?

Every business, large or small, is vulnerable threats brought by incidents of liability, litigation, legislation, and aggressive competition. Information and forehand knowledge of what’s going on is important. And for most people, it serves as the first line of defense against incidents that could cause the business to lose revenues. Sometimes, as is often the case, mere data is not enough. What businesses need are highly-refined information and analysis that facilitates decision-making.

Public criminal records come in especially handy during the hiring process of a prospective employee. It does not bode well for a company to hire someone who’s been previously convicted of a criminal offense, especially if such an offense involves an environment which is relative to the position being offered.

The four Types of Public Criminal Records

During the past few years, a new type of pre-employment background check became available. It is called the National Criminal File or NCF. There are actually three NCF databases which spans the whole public criminal records registries of 38 to 50 states. As of today, NCF contains over 60 million to 133 million public criminal records in its three databases.

The National Criminal File contains four different kinds of records which can all be considered as "public criminal records." First on the list are arrest records. These are public criminal records of law enforcement records of arrest. They second type is criminal court records which are public criminal records registered locally, by state or federal. Third are corrections reports. These are public criminal records involving imprisonment for a certain period of time. And the fourth and last type is the state criminal repository records. These are statewide records made up of arrest records, criminal court records, and correction records.