Today, many people are interested in conducting a police background check on someone they believe they may be suspicious of. You may be an employer looking to ensure that your applicants haven’t stolen in the past or that you’re a parent looking to provide that the people you’re entrusting to look after your children are safe and can be trusted. Whatever your motivations for conducting a criminal record search, one thing is sure: the police maintain a database that they use to share information about local criminals with other jurisdictions, which you can access through the internet. Since the passage of the Freedom of Information Act, this database of criminal records has been made available to the public, allowing you to share the same criminal information that the local police department has access to without charge.
The various Intercheck background check services have been developed to assist you in determining whether or not the individual in question should be trusted. For decades, the various government agencies exchanged information with one another through the use of a national crime database; however, with the passage of the Freedom of Information Act, this database has been made available to the public for viewing. Unfortunately, there are several databases, and connecting to them was not designed to be straightforward.
Known as the NICS or the National Instant Criminal Background Check, the FBI maintains this police background check database. Local firearms dealers can use this database to determine whether or not you are permitted to own a firearm, and employers can use it to determine whether or not someone will be a trustworthy employee.
The national police database of criminal records is available to the general public for free, but it is not comprehensive in its coverage of crimes. There is an entirely different database available at each level of the federal government hierarchy. Furthermore, gathering all of this information can be a time-consuming endeavor. That is unless you choose to conduct an online background check with the police. The companies that provide this service have gone to great lengths to consolidate all of the criminal databases across the country into a single, easily navigable website. Even though they all provide a free version of this service, the information is not complete and, in some cases, is downright inaccurate. These free police background checks, on the other hand, can be helpful as a cost-effective way to determine whether or not someone deserves your trust. If, after conducting a free background check, you still have reservations about whether or not you should trust someone, you can pay for a more thorough background check, which is not prohibitively expensive when you consider how comprehensive the investigation is.
