Local criminal checks are simply not adequate any more. We live in a very mobile society, and people are constantly moving and travelling, so the opportunity for someone to have committed a crime outside of their local home town area is very high.

National criminal databases, although not perfect, are still a great way to cast a large net to uncover crimes that might not otherwise be found. The reason for this is that people often commit crimes in areas where they have no record of ever living or working.

Background screening industry best practices typically search for criminal records in the counties where an individual has lived during the past 7 years (using addresses revealed by a Social Search/Social Trace product). However, when an applicant has committed a crime in a jurisdiction not revealed by a Social Search-type product, there would be no viable way to find that crime without a criminal database product, such as the CORE® Criminal Search.

The following shows how the CORE® Criminal Search has helped to protect companies and organizations, by revealing crimes that would not otherwise have been found:

  1. A Texas client was able to discover that one of their applicants had a criminal record in Iowa, even though this individual had no record of ever living in Iowa.
  2. A California client was able to identify a North Carolina criminal, even though his application and credit report did not show any North Carolina addresses.
  3. An Arizona client was able to identify a Colorado Sex Offender who was an “absconder”, i.e., Colorado authorities did not know where he was living (and he had never registered in Arizona, even though he had been living in Arizona for over a year), but the CORE® Criminal Search found him, even though another background screening company did not.
  4. A Florida client was able to uncover an armed robber who had been released from an Illinois prison.
  5. A Utah client was able to identify an Idaho criminal, even though his application and credit report did not show any Idaho addresses.
  6. A Georgia client was able to find a convicted robber and a convicted drug dealer.
  7. A Connecticut client was able to discover an individual who had been convicted of multiple felonies.
  8. An Arizona client was able to identify an Ohio Sex Offender who was living in Arizona, but had not yet registered in Arizona. The CORE® Criminal Search from Reliable Background Screening, found him.

The CORE® Criminal Search (Criminal Offender Records Express), available exclusively from Reliable Background Screening, is Reliable Background Screening’s proprietary multi-state national instant criminal search product.

Posted by: Rudy Troisi. President, Reliable Background Screening.