Insight Screening

County criminal records searches are often viewed as the most reliable search to glean the most up to date data available. However, the scope of the search is limited to the individual county and can increase the overall cost of the applicants profile due to the number of counties that are researched. Theses searches are typically called hand searches, meaning that someone actually physically enters the courthouse to research the records or via a direct court connection remotely. County searches as a whole are in our opinion the slowest to provide results: 72 hours is the industry standard.

Statewide criminal records searches have become more accessible and reliable over the last few years. The records we access are housed in a state agency and owned by that state. (A list of these states available and the state agencies are below.) The state repository is what we recommend when and if it is available. Of the available states, about half of them charge some kind of fee, which we call a state fee. (You can also find a list of these states fees below.) These records are supposed to encompass all counties within the state; however this is not always the case.

Federal criminal records searches should only be used in conjunction with the county or statewide search. Federal records are crimes against the government or crimes in which the candidate was arrested by a Federal official such as FBI, DEA, ATF, etc. The hit ratio is much less than the records searched on the county or state level, due to the nature of the crimes.

Proprietary Database criminal records searches have a number of names, depending on which company you are working with. We call the core database the Multi-State Criminal Records Index; however, you may see it called National Criminal Records Search among other broad search scope names. The use of this search is also recommended in conjunction with a county or a statewide records search to help broaden the overall scope of the research. An explanation or description of this data may be provided by your salesperson.