Trying to decide which type of criminal searches to process for potential employees can be confusing, as there are positives and negatives to each search. Nationwide criminal searches may seem the most attractive, but are generally database searches which are incomplete, inaccurate and untimely. Unfortunately, there is no live nationwide criminal search available to the general public. Federal criminal searches provide only information on those crimes which have been tried in the federal court system and may lack identifiers (such as dates of birth or social security numbers), making it difficult to determine whether or not a record belongs to your applicant. County criminal searches are generally very accurate, but are limited in scope and may not include those charges which have been tried in municipal courts. If an applicant has lived in multiple counties within a particular state, a statewide criminal search can be a cost effective alternative. However, statewide criminal searches are only accurate and up-to-date if the counties which report into the statewide repository are doing so in a timely manner. The following article demonstrates that this may not always be the case, particularly in the state of Texas.
Article from Dallas News
