Criminal Records

The layers of a criminal search

There is no single, complete "national criminal database" in the United States. Records are created and held at many levels, and a thorough screening combines them:

• National criminal database — a broad, instant multi-state index used as a pointer to surface jurisdictions worth searching directly. Fast, but it must be confirmed at the source.
• County criminal search — the gold standard. We search the courts in the counties where the person has actually lived and worked, developed from their address history. Most felony and misdemeanor cases are adjudicated here.
• Statewide criminal search — a state repository search where available, covering the whole state at once.
• Federal criminal search — the U.S. district courts, across all 94 districts. Federal crimes (fraud, trafficking, weapons, tax, interstate offenses) never appear in county or state records.
• National sex-offender registry — a search of all state and territory registries.
• Global, U.S. & state watchlists — OFAC, sanctions, and other government watchlists.

Why the county search matters most

Instant databases are convenient, but they are incomplete and can be out of date — some counties don't report to them at all, and records can be missing dispositions. That's why every hit we develop is verified at the primary source before we report it. It's also why we build the search from a real address history rather than a single self-reported city.

How results are reviewed and reported

A database "hit" is not a conviction. Our investigators confirm the record belongs to the right person, verify the current disposition at the court, and report only what the law allows the requester to receive. We follow Fair Credit Reporting Act procedures and, for Illinois employment, the conviction-record rules of the Illinois Human Rights Act and the Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act.

What we do not report

Depending on the purpose and jurisdiction, certain records must be excluded — arrests that did not lead to conviction, sealed or expunged records, juvenile matters, and records older than the periods the FCRA or state law allow. We build those limits into the report so your decision stays defensible.