Much is being discussed about nationwide (and in some instances regional” or statewide) criminal database searches, and their use in pre-employment screening. Yes, they maintain a wider coverage area than a county criminal search and can help identify those hard to find criminal records that are located outside an Applicant’s counties of residence or employment. And yes, the results are instant. But criminal database searches are not an effective primary search for records. Why? Because a database criminal records search consists of limited records from state departments of corrections, county courts, prison systems, sex offender registries, etc. that are compiled from databases, and as a general rule, databases are notorious for being out of date, incomplete, and simply inaccurate. Many criminal records are missing from databases, and when records are present, identifiers are often removed from the record, making a positive association with your Applicant a guessing game.
Conducting your criminal research on-site at the court house is by far the safest and most legally compliant method of conducting criminal research. Mega Group Online always recommends that you conduct this on-site County Criminal searches in all counties an Applicant has resided in within the last seven years.
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