Finding Criminal Record

Free Public Access to Criminal Records

Pre-employment background checks are one of the main reasons why an individual or a business entity would need free public access to criminal records. This is to help them establish the propensity of a prospective hire to commit a crime and avoid that as much as possible. Companies today are investing lots of money on research firms who use free public access to criminal records in order to check the background of a subject. Aside from free public access to criminal records, these research firms also have other methods of looking for information relevant to the background check they are making.
Free Public Access to Criminal Records Nationwide Databases
Most of the time free public access to criminal records is not enough to develop a comprehensive background report on a subject. Only very few nationwide databases are available and most of them cannot even be considered as nationwide. The FBI is the only entity that has a database large enough to be considered as nationwide but even then, it only contains records of convictions and not simple misdemeanors. Plus, the criminal records contained in the FBI database do not allow free public access. In fact, they are not public at all and the extraction of information for purposes other than criminal justice uses may result in a huge fine or penalty.
Aside from the FBI database, there are other indexes that contain a huge bulk of criminal records for free public access. Foremost of these databases are the three NCF (National Criminal File) databases. There are 38 to 50 states included and the number of criminal records for free public access in these three NCF databases ranges from 60 million to as many as 133 million.
The number is quite impressive but companies who wish to use the free public access to criminal records provided by the NCF databases should read the fine print.
The Four Types of Criminal Records for Free Public Access
There are four different kinds of criminal records which belong to the free public access category. These are the arrest records, criminal court records, corrections records, and state criminal repository records.
The arrest records are criminal records of arrests done by the local law enforcement agencies. Most states require their law enforcement agencies to accomplish an arrest report when they arrest someone. The report soon becomes an arrest record and is sent to the criminal courts for arraignment, in which case, the record becomes known as a criminal court record. After the trial, if the defendant is convicted, the punishment may vary. The defendant may be sentenced to incarceration, during which time, he may be sent to jail for a misdemeanor or to state prison for a felony. Records of imprisonment become known as corrections records while the arrest records, criminal court records, and correction records are sent to the state criminal records repository for free public access.

Finding Criminal Record News

Finding Criminal Record

COLUMBUS - Four more high-ranking employees of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services were punished yesterday for their roles in searching Joe the Plumber's background. Gov. Ted Strickland previously disciplined the agency's chief. Doug ...

4 more Ohio officials punished in 'Joe' data search - Toledo Blade

After reviewing a video of an Oct. 31 incident between McGrane and Del Vecchio at the Morris County jail, Nish dismissed Del Vecchio's complaint that he was assaulted by McGrane during that meeting, finding there was no probable cause to support the ...

Assault complaint against Morris jail warden dismissed - Morris County Daily Record

STROUDSBURG — A Monroe County jury convicted former court employee Michael Grego of Tobyhanna on Friday of 14 counts of sexual offenses, including the most serious, criminal attempted rape of a child. The courtroom was packed with courthouse staff ...

Jury convicts in sex-crime case - Pocono Record

Many people working on government contracts must face criminal checks Some public bodies and firms working on government contracts force staff to submit to criminal records checks, a BBC investigation has found. The Donal MacIntyre programme on BBC ...

Criminal checks 'forced' on staff - BBC News

CHARLOTTE (AP) - Florida police say they've closed an investigation into the suspicious death of the third husband of a Georgia grandmother who has left a trail of five dead husbands in five states. Patricia Dally of the Monroe County, Fla., Sheriff ...

Fla. ends probe of 3rd husband's suspicious death - Greensboro News & Record

CASAL DI PRINCIPE, Italy - The paratroopers' armored vehicles had barely taken up position in this fiefdom of the Casalesi crime clan when the mobsters decided to show who was boss. On a sleepy Sunday, a few hundred yards from where the crack ...

Italy fights mob terror near Naples - Lompoc Record

CHARLESTON -- Some West Virginia State Police outposts have done a poor job managing their evidence rooms, according to a legislative audit that outlines problems including spotty record-keeping, cash and jewelry left unsecured, and the apparent ...

Audit finds fault in state evidence handling - Herald-Dispatch

The Maryland Transit Administration has referred a case to criminal investigators at the Attorney General's Office involving an employee who used keys to bus fare boxes to gain access to the collected money, according to a legislative audit released ...

Audit: MTA unable to account for $475,000 - Baltimore Sun

LOCKPORT — Two Niagara Falls men pleaded guilty to fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance in separate cases before Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III. Both men were found to have cocaine in their cars. Qadree (M. Fields ...

2 men in separate cases admit drug possession - Buffalo News

BERLIN, Nov 21 (IPS) - Outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush has been unpopular in Europe, but his policies in fighting the 'war on terror' have found many takers. Daniel Finke and Thomas Koenig, professors of politics at the University of Mannheim ...

Criminal Records Search