If you want to learn about someone’s background, those pay Internet sites run by unlicensed “investigators” are hardly more than useless. They will offer a 50 state, “police check” for a really low fee. They lead you to believe they have the real inside information. When they vouch for the person you’ve requested information about, they leave you with confidence that this is a stellar person you can allow to hold your wallet. For the most part I’ve learned these unlicensed, so called information brokers are crooks and clowns that don’t know the first thing about conducting a background investigation.
Criminal records are kept in several places:
The FBI
State police agencies
Local police agencies
City, County, State and Federal Courts
Departments of Corrections
Sex offender registration databases
Records maintained by the law enforcement agencies are protected by numerous laws, which make certain types of unauthorized disclosures a felony. In the old days cops were never caught passing record information around. Today these requests are carefully tracked and many cops have been prosecuted for these crimes. No cop in his right mind will try this these days.
If you want to learn about the background of someone start with a LICENSED PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR, preferably one who was a former or retired cop. The investigator will search the records of the courts, department of corrections, and sex offenders registrations along with limited access to some police agencies and get you the best possible information. A professional investigator will give you a copy of any records he captures along the way.
I’ll never understand why a federal conviction database is not maintained as a true public record. All convicted criminals have earned the Mark of Cain or that Scarlet Letter. That’s part of the punishment for the crime. Names can always be removed should pardons be issued or convictions later get reversed by some court.
Also read http://crimefilenews.blogspot.com/2006/01/if-i-get-caught-ill-just-tellem-im.html
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