I recently found a company that charges $5.00 per applicant for criminal records and they say they can search up to twenty states. Why should I pay more with your company?
Those types of databases are called “novelty searches” in our industry. The information they provide is outdated. They also use a private fugitive database which means the information contained in them is from public sources i.e.; Newspapers and other media formats.
The information does not come from the court system, which means the data is not accurate or current. As in most industries you will find these boiler room businesses lurking around the internet highways. There are also companies that buy large blocks of criminal records from the courts every six to eight months. Again, the information is outdated and you may not find that an applicant was recently arrested. It will not show up in their database for up to a year in some cases.
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Yes! It is called the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). However the system can only be accessed by law enforcement personnel. It is not available to the general public. If a company tells you they can check national criminals then beware there is no technology available at this time for that type of search. Here at Network Research Systems we have a proprietary database called M.A.C.E. (Multi Criminal Access Evaluator) which can check up to twenty states for criminal records and thirty three states for Department of Correction data. We use M.A.C.E. in conjunction with other criminal searches.
