Public Records Lookup

In today’s day and age, there are many reasons why someone would start looking up criminal public records. Before everything was digitized and stored in databases, a manual search can take up a lot of time. And now with the advent of the Internet, almost all public records, including criminal background checks, can be searched almost instantly.

Public criminal records can be obtained by searching the various websites such as government agencies or private websites, as well as directly through the relevant agency such as local district courts. Much of the basic data is available for free. But in some cases, like the Federal Bureau Investigation’s database, it is only for looking up your own record. For a comprehensive report, you should engage a professional background check agency or private investigator.

There are many reasons where searching for criminal public records is prudent. Employers might want to run a background check on potential employee and in some industries, the process of looking up public criminal records is a matter of course for all new hires. Other reasons include checking the record of people who have access to your home and family members such as nannies, house cleaning agents, electrician, plumber and gardener amongst others.

Criminal records can be searched online via a few sites such as the FBI website, the Sexual Offenders Registry, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Inmate or Prison-by-Prison search. You can also look through the individual state by state registry.

Most of these databases contains records that include criminal, civil, and in some cases even traffic offenses, however it’s important to realize that just because there is a record, it doesn’t necessarily mean the case resulted in a conviction. In particular, court records, which are generally a matter of public record, might indicate the occurrence of a crime, yet it’s possible the defendant was found to be innocent.

The FBI keeps a Criminal History Record based on fingerprint submission, disposition reports by agencies that have criminal jurisdictions. Their database also contains records of arrest, federal employment, naturalization and military. But the database at the FBI is not for public consumption. It must be obtained through legal channels.

There is a special database called the National Database for Crime against Children. Sex offenders against juveniles are tracked their whereabouts and movements.

You must also know what you are looking at before looking up public criminal record as these records vary widely and cover state and county crimes, federal crimes, state inmate record, federal inmate record, sex offenders, misdemeanor and felonies, arrest and conviction as well as incarceration records.

There is also no one complete database. You will have to go through the various criminal indexes kept by counties, cities and states.

When you have obtained a record, it is still best if you could verify the result with the appropriate authority to ascertain the accuracy of the report. This is because even ‘professional’ record searching agencies rely on the numerous databases and most of the time it provides an inmate search result. And in this case, when someone has been released on probation, their names would not turn up.

Generally, searching for criminal public record by looking up public criminal record is bound by two types of law. The first law governing the act of looking up public criminal record would be the Federal Civil Rights Law and therefore you must consider the reasons you have that justify the act of looking up public criminal record. Another law that governs this act is the state law which sometimes prohibits certain convicted offenders to fill in certain job positions. This requirement justifies the act of the prospective employer to begin his or her own search into the public domain criminal record.

The best way is to engage a private detective agency who would be also able to explain what the results mean. For instance, an arrest record doesn’t mean the person is guilty. Also note that in some states, applicants are protected against criminal disclosure due to privacy concerns.

Criminal public records are increasingly being accessed, whether it is for safety, employment decisions, or other reasons. For better or worse, it is relatively easy for most anyone to look up this information.