Local Criminal Background Check Services
When it comes to obtaining the most useful information about the criminal background of your applicant, there is no better source than local criminal records. The local court system is where most criminal proceedings begin and end. Therefore, when performed properly a local criminal records search will give you the most complete, accurate, and up-to-date information on local-level crimes.
A local criminal records search seems straight-forward until you consider there are more than 3,300 local jurisdictions and 7,000 significant courts in the United States. Add to that the varying structures of the court systems from state to state and you’re left with a situation where an inexperienced researcher would fail to discover that your applicant for a home security sales position is a convicted burglar.
Description of Service:
Our local criminal background check services can be conducted in any jurisdiction but are typically centered on jurisdictions where your applicant has lived, currently resides, or in places where we have found potential criminal activity on a broad-level search (such as in a statewide records search or nationwide records search).
Our experienced research team obtains local criminal records straight from the authoritative source, where we can uncover civil litigation, felony convictions, misdemeanors, bench warrants, and other local-level court actions. Since we never rely on questionable database sources for our local criminal records, we most often send professional researchers directly into the local courts where they personally retrieve criminal records data. Our research team goes through rigorous training and testing to deliver on our promise of accuracy and reliability with every search.
Best Practices of Local Criminal Background Check Services:
In order for your local criminal background search to be a reliable and accurate source for your applicants’ local-level criminal history, work with a provider who follows best practices:
- Understand the court structure for the state in which the search is being conducted.
- Go to the authoritative source for each court (for some courts, a database search will suffice and for others a hand search of the court dockets is required – you need to know the difference).
- Comply with guidelines and regulations surrounding the appropriate use of criminal records information (just because you have the information doesn’t mean you can use it).
Keep in mind, you won’t find federal crimes in a local criminal records search. Therefore, while your applicant may have a clean criminal record at the local level, you may find a serious crime on a federal records search. There is good reason why a comprehensive look at an applicant’s past can only be achieved by searching multiple sources.
Take Action with Risk Match:
Based on results of your background screening efforts, use our Risk Match service to apply rejection criteria (as established by your background screening policy) to deliver a red (do not hire), yellow (needs further review), or green (safe to hire) result. Learn more about Risk Match.
Limitations of a Local or County Criminal Background Check:
Navigating local criminal records can be a daunting task. Not all jurisdictions have the same accessibility to court records and some records are, quite frankly, messy. Given these conditions, some local criminal reports require a longer turnaround time.
Other key limitations inherent with any criminal records search are the ways in which criminal information can and cannot be used in the employment decision. This becomes a matter of following FCRA rules, ADA regulations, EEOC guidelines, and other applicable state and federal laws.
Typical Turnaround Time:
96% within 3 days or less
98% within 5 days or less
List Price:
$12.50
Get Started:
NOTE: List price represents our standard list pricing. Please contact us to build custom packages with discounted pricing for your business. Request a custom quote.
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